I Won't Die Again
by jenni.miko
Summary: Yuuri sacrifices his life to defeat soushu. A few months later, Wolfram meets this boy in the streets that look almost exactlly the same as Yuuri. Is he yuuri? but how can it be?
1. Sacrifice

Hi everyone!!~ This is my first fan fiction... hope you all like it!

Hope you will like the theme. Also, my mother tongue is not English, so please understand if I am not writing too well.

And I rewrote this chapter. So if you guys have the time you can read it again if you have already read the original one.

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM! I'm just a mere fan of KKM!~ Enjoy!~

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Yuuri stood on a lone cliff, far away from the battlefield. Safe from all attacks, but still able to monitor the situation of the war. The war that was not expected. This war against soushu.

Brave soldiers of shin makoku charged towards the deadly soushu warriors. They were undefeatable. Nothing seemed to stop the warriors of soushu, soldiers of shin makoku were defeated one after another. No attacks worked. They were just killed mercilessly, one after another.

Yuuri's head hung low, biting his lips and grasping his fist in anger and distress. "why, why won'y any attacks work? What is the purpose of my men fighting out there when we know there is not chance they can win? Why do they have to die? If only I had suppressed soushu earlier, then there wouldn't even be this war! It is all my fault!"

Conrad, who was ordered to stay by yuuri's side in case of any ambushes, comforted the miserable king, "heika, they are soldiers, they were trained to fight and protect you and this country. They die honorably on the battlefield."

No reply was heard from yuuri. It was obvious that he did not accept this sort of an answer. Yuuri stayed silent, but Conrad could see the determination that filled yuuri's eyes. Yuuri walked away from Ao's side and walked to the furthest part of the cliff.

"I will not allow anymore of my dear people to die!" shouted yuuri as he raised his head suddenly.

Conrad knew that yuuri was up to no good. Conrad immediately went up to stop him,but he was just a second too late.

A burst of aqua blue maryoku bursted out from yuuri and he was in maou mode. His hair grew and his eyes narrowed. He announced once more, "no one shall die anymore. I shall crush soushu."

Raging maryoku raced to wherever enemies were, slashing them to instant death. Shin makoku soon had the upper hand. Yuuri used all four elements: water, fire, earth, wind. Water dragons appeared, fire lions leaped across the battlefields, the earth cracked and tornados swirled.

Conrad had a hard time standing firm behind the maou. He had to stop yuuri, or else, yuuri would die of maryoku depletion. He raised his voice over all the attacks, "Heika! Please stop now! You have done enough! Our men can finish the rest! Please stop!"

The sudden strong attacks of majutsu caught the attention of all that were on the battlefield. Yuuri's loyal subjects knew specifically that it was yuri who was doing all the majutsu.

The three, ran towards their king, all intending to warn the maou to stop his rash attacks. They walked together against the strong wind towards yuuri.

"Even if Yuuri Heika has more maryoku than normal people, using all the four elements at the same time at such a large mass is too much!" Günter said to the other two worriedly.

"Yuuri! Stop it! You will die! YUURI!" yelled Wolfram to his fiancé who obviously has blocked out the whole world to concentrate on using maryoku.

Yuuri saw that the warriors of soushu had very much decreased in numbers, yuuri was very pleased. Knowing that if he continues to use majutsu against them, soushu would be gone in no time. It was then that yuuri felt a sharp pain in his chest. It were as if a thousand swords were pricking him from inside. It became very hard for yuuri to breathe, the air felt thick and hot. Yuuri's legs gave him away and yuuri was soon kneeling on the ground.

His hearing failed him. He could faintly hear people shouting, 'yuuri', 'heika' in the background. But all did not matter to yuuri anymore. He just wanted to defeat soushu.

Yuuri's physical condition continued to go downhill but his majutsu stood firm and did not back down a bit.

8000 … 5000 … 2000 ... 500 … 100. The enemies were down to a hundred only. Yuuri gasped greedily for air, but he still did not feel right. His vision became blurry, he could harly keep his eyes open, but he still continued.

_heh__, so it is almost cleaned up. I am sure when I am done I'll get a huge lecture from the four of them. Oh well, at least all the Shin Makoku is going to be free Soushu's evil grasp and everyone can live in peace._

Yuuri gave a last push to his majutsu and the last of the warriors of soushu were seen. Shin makoku had won the war. There was peace once more. The blue aura around yuuri disappeared in a second and yuuri's body fell right to the ground at the same moment.

Yuuri's four most loyal subjects rushed to the motionless king's side. Conrad took yuuri into his arms, shaking him slightly, while yelling franticly, "yuuri, yuuri! Wake up!"

There was no response at all. Gunter took his king's wrist, hoping for a pulse, but gunter remained still with the most shocked face. Seeing that, they all understood.

It was cruel, but it was true, that their young maou was dead.

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Hope you all liked this chapter!

And I hope this it would interest you to continue to read this fanfic!

Thanks a lot!


	2. Guilt

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM! I'm just a mere fan of KKM!~ Enjoy!~ (thanks Darkia for reminding me to write this!~)

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"Yuuri…?" Wolfram went up to Yuuri's body and touched Yuuri's cheek. It was still warm. It was as if Yuuri was just sleeping. But knowing that there was no way there maou would come back to life, tears of sorrow rolled down.

Conrad was still in a state of shock. The Yuuri in his arms was dead. The young boy who he had swore to protect. Conrad held Yuuri tighter and buried his head in Yuuri's chest, "if only had I stopped you."

You could tell that Gwendal was not pleased with the sight. His forehead bore one more crease than usual and his grip on his sword tightened. "No one could have stopped him in that situation. That is why we should have left him in the castle. Bringing an untrained person onto the fields was never the right thing to do. I was too lenient with him."

Gunter wiped the tears off his face and said in a sad tone, "Heika died in honor. He exchanged his life for the peace of the whole nation. But I failed to protect him. No matter how good I am in combat, there is no use if I have no one to protect."

There was a long silence. Guilt was filled in the air.

Then Conrad stood up with Yuuri in his arms. Without saying anything, he walked towards where their camp was stationed. The others followed.


	3. The Funeral

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM! I'm just a mere fan of KKM!~ Enjoy!~ (thanks Darkia for reminding me to write this!~)

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News spread fast. As soon as the party stepped into the castle, everyone knew that Yuuri was dead. No one could believe that their cheerful Maou was actually lying still, dead. Everyone was in shock.

The Maou's funeral had prepared at once. It could be classified as the grandest funeral prepared in the shortest amount of time. Yuuri was cleaned up and was put in a new set of uniform. Then he was laid down in his coffin. He seemed so peaceful. The Maou's four loyal subjects had monitored the whole preparation to the end. Yuuri's coffin was put in the throne room where Yuuri usually sat. They took one last glance at him and left. The funeral was to be held the next day, so they went back to their rooms to clean up and get some rest.

Then, when Yuuri had been left alone in the throne room, two shadows, one as tall as Yuuri, one as tiny as a fairy, sneaked in.

They were at the coffin's side, "I wasn't expecting you to die that way, Shibuya."

"Perhaps you would like another chance? Yuuri."

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Then the day of the funeral came. Each member of the ten noble families attended the funeral. Everyone had their last glance at Yuuri the day before, for they would not have the chance today. The air was gloomy, for everyone's favorite maou had died. His four most trustworthy subjects all bowed the longest for they felt that the Maou's death was their fault. Though they knew that Yuuri would have never blamed them for it.

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Are short chapters really that annoying? Should I just leave it in one chapter?

Tell me your thought on this everyone!~ thanks!


	4. Yuuji

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM! I'm just a mere fan of KKM!~ Enjoy!~ (thanks Darkia for reminding me to write this!~)

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4 months after Yuuri's death

As Wolfram walked down the streets of Shin Makoku in disguise, he saw that Yuuri's death had indeed plagued the country with grief. He thought, "If Yuuri was here, he could take care of this kind of mess in no time. Yuuri…" at the thought of Yuuri, tears began rolling off his cheeks.

He wiped them away with his sleeves, "eh? Why am I crying? I have already finished grieving, I shouldn't be sad anymore. Why? I am not this weak, even if I cry, Yuuri will not come back." He could no longer hold back his tears, he walked into a small ally, sat down and buried his head in his knees to cry.

Suddenly there was a tap on his shoulder and a voice asked, "Sir, are you ok?" this voice struck him, Yuuri's voice, his cheerful voice which was always calm and determined. Wolfram looked up, only to see a boy's face that looked exactly like Yuuri's but with brown eyes. Wolfram could not tell the boy's hair colour, for it was wrapped in a bandana, a white cloth that covered his head and secured with a knot at the back of his head like a ponytail.

"Yuuri…" Wolfram said under his breath.

"Sorry, sir? What did you say?" asked the 'Yuuri looking' boy.

"Yuuri!" Wolfram jumped onto the boy with a hug, "why are you here? ...How did you come back?"

"Sir, I'm sorry but I'm afraid that you have got the wrong person. My name is Yuuji. How could I have the same name as the great Maou? Anyways, it is not nice to sit here, why not go to my house for some tea?"

"Ah." Said Wolfram as he stood up with Yuuji's help, quite disappointed.

They walked through the streets with Yuuji holding Wolfram's hand to guide him. Soon they approached the countryside, where there were less houses and more nature.

They stopped in front of a small hut, "this is my house, it is small but comfortable. Please come in." said Yuuji with a nice smile on his face.

Wolfram stepped in and found the hut really very comfortable and cozy. Something struck him, there were the things that Yuuri love to play in the corner of the house, baseball.

"Why do you have those?" asked Wolfram in a wobbily voice.

"Oh! Those! Yuuri Heika's new invented sport! It's not bad, right? Throwing the ball around, if you only have two people and a game if you have a lotof people! It's fun! Don't you think so?" said Yuuji as he took out the tea cups and made some tea.

Just as Yuuji poured out some tea, he heard soft sniffs from Wolfram, "eh? sir? Why are you so sad? Perhaps it was something I said?" Yuuji said in a soft calming voice as he sat himself beside Wolfram, "is it about Yuuri Heika? Were you close to him? Sorry sir, but may I ask of your name?"

"Although you look so much like him," mumbled Wolfram as he wiped away his tears and once again put on his serious face. "My name is Wolfram von Bielefeld, I come from the great Bielefeld family of Shin Makoku's ten noble families."

Normally, a mazoku would jump in fear if they were in a noble's presence, but Yuuji did not do that, instead, he said, "Wow, Wolfram, it's ok if I call you Wolfram right? Wolfram! I knew there was something different about your beautiful face. So, I heard that the nobles are all able to use maryoku, can you? I have never seen someone use majutsu, it must be very cool. Ah, maybe you can show me sometime later, right? Wolfram?" Yuuji was so excited and filled enthusiasm that his eyes actually sparkled in Wolfram's eyes.

"heh," a chuckle sipped out of Wolfram's mouth as he though how Yuuji resembled his Yuuri, "well, Yuuji, I shall take my leave for today, maybe I will stop by some other time to answer your questions. "

"Aw, you leaving already? Just when I gained a new friend to talk to. Hump. Fine then, come by anytime you want, I am quite free, so you should be able to find me. "Replied Yuuji, who seemed slightly disappointed.

"Sorry. Oh yeah, may I bring along some of my friends next time I come? I'm sure they would be happy to meet you." Said Wolfram as he looked back from the door.

"Cool! More nobles? Sure! I would be honored and most happy to host your friends, Wolfram. Come by again soon!" said Yuuji with a smile on his face to the Wolfram who was already outside the door.

"Yeah, thanks for everything today!" Waved Wolfram to Yuuji who was still standing at his doorsteps.

Yuuji stood there until Wolfram was out of sight, he turned back into his hut with a sigh, "it makes me sad to see you cry. My death must have caused you quite a shock. But for now I shall not return to you, for I have no right to return to your side yet."

He looked out of the window into the everlasting field that merges with the sky and mumbled, "I wonder how the others are doing?" Then, he rubbed his eyes, "these contact lenses are so uncomfortable, damn that Shinou for giving me such cheap contacts, I'll sue him if my eyes are infected!"

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Hope the fan fiction is OK up to this point.


	5. Gathering

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM!!

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And the next morning, when Yuuri was doing the laundry as usual, he suddenly got a feeling that someone was staring at him. He turned around slowly only to find Wolfram, Gwendal, Conrad, Günter and Yozak staring staright at him with astonished faces.

Then Conrad muttered, "Yuuri, is that you?" as he walked slowly towards Yuuri.

Of course, Yuuri could not let people know the truth so, "sir, I think I have explained to Wolfram that I am not Yuuri Heika, please don't get it wrong anymore."

Everyone was taken back and Wolfram just looked away. They could not believe it, their beloved Heika that seemed to be only a few meters away was actually not even there.

"he-he, Yuuri, that is not funny, how can you not be Yuuri, you look exactly like yourself. Shinou Heika must have revived you, just like how he got me back my arm, right Yuuri? Why did you not come back to us? We were all very sad, why did you have to make us suffer that sadness? Ah! Did shinou heika order you to do something? Like he ordered me before? It has to be that! Right? Yuuri?"said Conrad as he continued forward.

Conrad stopped when couldn't see Yuuri's face anymore, for he had his head so down that his face was covered by the shadows, Yuuri snickered in his heart_, so you were all sad and suffering, were you? How pathetic! Should you guys not be helping the country rebuild its strength instead of sobbing in corners and staying weak? Fools…. Though, I am much more of a fool than you guys. I never realized that I was so useless, I took everything too much for granted._

Yuuri once again lifted up his head with his trademark bright smile and said, "sumimasen, but I am not Yuuri Heika, for the third time, my name is Yuuri, please remember that. Please don't greif over Yuuri Heika's death anymore. I'm sure he would be the one that is deeply saddened to see you all in this state."

"If you wish for us to believe that you are not Yuuri, please take off that bandana on your head and prove to us that you do not have the same black hair as him." Said Gwendal sternly.

Yuuri was taken aback by Gwendal's request, "um…"

Yozak folded his arms and looked at Yuuri with slanted eyes, "yeah kiddo, don't try to use your eyes as an excuses, cause you are obviously using coloured contacts."

Yuuri looked stunned, "eh?! You could tell?" he immediately turned his back to them and took out a small mirror from his pocket (I don't know why he had it there). Once he took a look of himself in the mirror, he cursed under his breath, "shoot, I was too clumsy this morning, it is a little bit out of place." Then, Yuuri fixed it and turned back to the five, "which part of my eyes colour looks fake?"

Günter sighed, "Heika…"

"I am not Yuuri Heika! Can you stop that absurd thinking? Even it was Shinou Heika, he would not be able to rise a dead person! Yuuri Heika is dead! Just get over it and stop acting like three year old kids!"Snapped Yuuri.

"Yuuri…" Wolfram started.

"I'm Yuuji, y-u-u-J-i!"

"then, Yuuri, "continued Wolfram, "as you can see, the hearts of all mazoku are shattered because of their Maou's death, the country has become very weak. We need someone like Yuuri or even better, Yuuri to become the Maou. So if you are hiding something from us, I suggest you not."

"Let me tell you something, I love Shin Makoku very much," said Yuuri who looked at the five with a serious face, "that's why I hope that every single thing and mazoku here can be happy and safe. But, of course, I, as a normal mazoku citizen, cannot anything big to change the fate of the country. But how about you guys? The ones who were the closest to Yuuri Heika while he was alive? The ones who know the best how Yuuri Heika does things? What are you all doing? Mourning? Still mourning? Do you think that is correct? As Yuuri Heika's most trusted subjects and comrades? What should you be doing? Huh?" shouted Yuuri, he calmed down a bit and continued, "please know that the Shin Makoku now is what Yuuri Heika and you guys made it to be. Don't let this peaceful Shin Makoku fall. Help it." He took a deep breath and said really tiredly, "please leave, please don't come to see me until find a resolve to the problem you have." And slammed the door right at their faces.

The five stood there not moving for a long time, stunned.

After the long silence, Günter finally said something, "whether he is Yuuri Heika or not, his words were very true. Shall we head back to think about it?"

"I suppose." Gwendal muttered as he walked towards his horse while the others followed.

Back inside the house, Yuuri slumped against the door and mumbled, "I don't deserve it, I did nothing to gain all of you guys' trust, respect and care… and yet you guys still stay with this useless Maou. For this reason that I shall not return your sides yet. I must work hard to climb to the top, to gain things through hard work is the right way. When I get there I shall be once again be by everyone as Shibuya Yuuri, 27th Maou. But as I grow, I hope all of you do too, so please wait till I am worthy."

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Did this chapter make sense to anyone of you? I was sort of mixed up here, because my original idea was not to use that reason for Yuuri to not go back to be maou. Sorry if it was confusing.

But if it was fine that would be great!

Please review!!


	6. The Tournament

Thanks for reviews everyone. Glad that most of you enjoyed it so far. Some of you have commented that short chapters were not good, so I put this longer one up. But is it long enough? Or should I put even more on one chapter?

There are some random characters that I made up for this chapter. Sorry if their names sound weird.

Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM, but I do own those random characters!

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It was the yearly Shin Makoku elite soldier recruitment battle again, this time, the person who wins would be placed as Captain of Brinel, an elite soldier group. Surprisingly, Yuuri found himself standing right in front of the arena where the battle would be held, "oh my my, am I really going to do this?" he looked at his hand squeezed it tight, "Shinou trained me for the past 4 months in swordsmanship, bit I am still not sure whether or not I can win in a real combat duel. Since I was such a failure before… he-he. As for majutsu, I was always fine with that, Shinou even taught me a few tricks, but I can't use my maryoku carelessly, it's much too noticeable. Anyways, I must give it a try, I won't make any progress that way. I'll give it a try."

Just as he was about to step into the academy, he remembered something, "I suppose _they _would be inside, I better cover my face, rather than causing a ruckus." So Yuuri took the long piece of cloth left at his 'bandana ponytail' and wrapped it around his neck up to under his eyes. Therefore, the only thing that showed on his head was his eyes. Satisfied, Yuuri walked into the academy without anyone knowing what he looked like.

A table was set up at the side for those who want to sign up, Yuuri wrote his name and continued inside. The arena had a dirt floor, while the audience stand was above, circling around the arena, so that the audiences could observe from above. In the middle of the audience stand, was a reserved place, a place where Yuuri used to sit in, the Maou's VIP space, where his most trusted advisors sat with him. Now, there was no Maou sitting there, but only the four men, Wolfram, Conrad, Gwendal and Günter. While, yozak was mingled between the audiences, undercover as always. Yuuri could not see their faces due to the strong sunlight from above, Yuuri could not tell what expressions they had .

Following the instructions, Yuuri followed everyone to the backstage to wait for their turn. Yuuri picked up a sword and suddenly remembered his sword, the maken, morgif, he chuckled at the thought of morgif's funny face, wondering how the sword was doing.

Just as he was pondering on old memories, a loud voice from the speaker boomed, "Yuuji vs. Yoset!" Yuuri stood up and headed for the bright arena in front of him. Each step he took towards the arena, the cheering increased from the excited audiences.

Finally, he saw his opponent, he was a boy aged around 15 years old. Yuuri thought_, "is this not a bit unfair? A 19 year old me fighting a 15 year old him. Oh well, no choice, it might be better for me, since my skills are so bad." _

Yuuri lifted up the sword, it felt especially light. Also, as Yuuri ran and jumped around, he found that it was not tiring at all. Yoset's attacks did not bother him one bit, the blows were like slow motion in Yuuri's mind, he could easily avoid and block all of them. Yuuri was grateful to Shinou's little 'training', if you could call that torturing that, this made things much easier to Yuuri. Yuuri decided that it was about time to finish Yoset up. So, he used the hilt of the sword to hit Yoset at full strength. Immediately, Yoset coughed out some blood and fell down to the floor unconscious. Yuuri whispered apologetically to Yoset, "sorry, I'll heal you later. Please forgive my violence."

Yuuri went on and on, defeating every single opponent that he's got. This made the others quite mad, they did not like how Yuuri finished them in one blow without breaking a sweat. They decided to get back at him.

"Yuuji VS Hijiri!" boomed the loud speaker once again. Yuuri walked out for the 15th time in his disguised form. He stopped at the center of the arena where he stood face to face with Hijiri. Hijiri was a boy around 17 years old, he had green hair, with a quite good-looking face and body, but somehow there seemed to be a really evil presence lurking around him. They both took their stances and one fierce battle began again. Their blades clashed at each other and they ran from places to places, this Hijiri was not weak. It was a bit harder to keep up with him, Hijiri was not as easy to defeat as the opponents before. Suddenly an arrow plunged itself deep into the ground in front of Yuuri, leaving him shocked and puzzled. Then more arrows shot, it was almost like a shower of them, but Yuuri either dodged them or cut them in half before they hit him. Now _this_ made him break a sweat and pant hardly. Hijiri snickers really evilly, that somehow does not match his face, "not bad? Are you?"

"So we like to use dirty tricks? Heh? Such a coward, using ten men against one man." Yuuri slanted his eyes to spot the hidden ones (because of Shinou's 'training', Yuuri is able to sense living things' presence) , "If you are not going to follow the rules and do this, why don't I also do the same to clean you up?"

Yuuri closed his eyes to concentrate, the maryoku in his body began to act up, it felt good to use it, the long forgotten feeling of maryoku boiling up in his body. Yuuri exhaled and opened his eyes, the aqua blue maryoku wrapped around Yuuri, causing him to glow in that blue light. Yuuri could feel the difference, he could control the new overwhelming power, how refreshing it felt. It felt like a gush of fresh cool water washing away the weariness and bad things he felt, he felt renewed.

At the command of his thoughts, only one single water dragon formed from his maryoku because Yuuri did not want to give out any hints that he was the Maou. he made the water dragon fly through each archer and make them drown a bit in its body. The water dragon finished its cycle and dropped the 9 archers right in front of Yuuri.

"ok, now that all the cheats have been cleared off," he returned his cold gaze to Hijiri, "shall we continue," paused and said clearly, "fairly?" right after that word, Yuuri took advantage of the shocked Hijiri and defeated him gracefully with the generous 'sword hilt punch' which knocked him out cold. At the same moment, Yuuri felt that he saw a dark shadow rise from Hijiri and the other 9 archers.

There was no cheering sound from the crowds, the place was in deep silence. Everyone especially the five were in great shock. Something like this required a great amount of maryoku, not many mazoku could do the same, of course the Maou would be able to, but not many other. This power that the participant showed just now, could rival the Maou's maryoku. And Yuuri Heika's five subjects knew that the style of majutsu just now was exactly like their precious Maou's. but one thing made the thought of that participant of being the Maou waver, that was, Yuuri's swordsmanship could never be as good.

"That majutsu style without a doubt is Yuuri's, as for his swordsmanship, he might have received some kind of power to boost his combat power," said Wolfram as he stood up from his chair, "may I be the one to do the final test for that participant?"

"Please do so, Wolfram." Replied Günter.

"As for the last test," the speaker said at the mic which was connected to the loud speakers, "we have Wolfram von Bielefeld Excellency to perform it this year. So, the last battle that would decide whether or not mr. Yuuji would be able to become the strongest elite soldier group, the Brinel's Captain. Wolfram excelleny VS mr. Yuuji!" everyone went silent, " Let the battle begin!" and the bell rang like crazy, alerting everyone that a legendary battle was about to begin.

Both of them took their places, and prepared for the last battle. They both were alert, looking out for any sign of movement from their opponent. A long silence passed and Wolfram took the first move. " ahhh!!!!" and Wolfram slammed his sword at Yuuri with both of his hands. As calmly as ever, Yuuri blocked the blow with his two hands. It was time to put more effort into his fights, for Wolfram was on a totally different level than the ones before. The next ten minutes of the battled continued in the same mode, one attacked but the other was able to block, neither one was at advantage.

This annoyed Wolfram a lot, he tried to analyze the situation in his mind, "his swordsmanship is really not that all bad, this way we won't get anywhere! We would just continue to fight and fight and fight, instead of a swordsmanship competition, it would be a competition of stamina. His stamina is obviously is better than me, he fought so many others before me and still is able to keep up with my pace, I can't win this way. I'm starting to feel really tired. Maybe my majutsu could beat him. I bet the level of majutsu he just demonstrated a minute ago was all he had, with that level, I can beat him, I am bit stronger than that. I should be able to win. I'll give it a try."

"All the beings that make up the element of fire, obey this brave mazoku that calls upon you, come out!" then, a fire lion leaped out from behind of Wolfram, "attack!"

"tsk… you would be better off not using maryoku. Being able to use maryoku doesn't mean everything." Yuuri said in a soft voice filled with unreadable feelings. He continued to look straight at Wolfram from the middle of the coliseum with one of his hands in his pocket, he raised the free hand just as the fire lions were about hit. with a sizzle, Wolfram's flames were put out by Yuuri's water barrier.

"what…?" stuttered Wolfram as his confident face was replaced by an amazed or you could say, a shocked face, "how can that be?"

"I told you it wasn't a good idea, your excellency." Yuuri let three water dragons of the same size as Wolfram's fire lions rise from behind him, "go."

"Ah!!" cried Wolfram, for he was straggled by the water dragons, "let go of me!"

"Let go? You sure?" replied Yuuri, "as you wish, your excellency." Yuuri bowed with his right hand over his heart and his left behind his back. At the same moment he bowed, Wolfram sank into the water dragons.

Wolfram gargled for air inside, for he was inside this sphere of water which had no holes for air or whatsoever, he waved his arms and legs up and down, but the pressure kept him down. So simply put, he was drowning.

"I suppose this is good enough." Muttered Yuuri to himself. He put his hand back into his pocket and the majutsu was immediately released, leaving Wolfram there coughing out the water he swallowed. Yuuri did not do anymore nor did he say anymore, he just turned his back to everyone and started walking back to the backstage.

There was a long silence, for everyone was in awe, then the mc finally came back to reality and announced, "the winner is, mr. Yuuji!" this brought everyone back to reality and the cheers rose. By this time, Yuuri was already deep inside of the backstage.

He went to the locker room where nobody was and sat down on the benches, he mumbled to himself, "wow, that was a heck of a new power! But the attitude I used on everyone was really harsh, I can't believe I said and did all those things. I must have hurt everyone's pride a lot, especially Wolfram... damn it! To achieve my ideal goal, there must have sacrifices. Disguising and distaining myself from everyone else is the most efficient way. If someone gets too close to me, they just might find out who I really am. "

To repent, healing the others' wounds was the least he could do. Yuuri went to the hospital area and decided to help, where he saw Gisela. "miss, may I help with the healing?" said Yuuri to the Gisela who was treating a wounded man.

She looked up and was shocked to see the winner, Yuuri standing there, "ah, so you are the sir Yuuji that caused all these wounds. Well, I can't blame you for that, it's the least you had to do to win the battle. So why don't you help me."

"that's what I came here for."

Yuuri started healing each one of the patients, though many of them refused. "get away! You monster! What are you trying to do?" cried one of the patients which was defeated by Yuuri just a while ago.

The patient tried to run away, but Yuuri tightened his grip on the patient's wrist. "as you may understand yourself the most, sir, you are in no condition to move. So please lie down quietly and let me heal you." Said Yuuri with an extremely calm voice.

The patient still tried to resist, but Yuuri held him down. The healing majutsu works like this: to heal that person's wounds, you must share 5% of the pain and of course, use your maryoku. Blue maryoku appeared at Yuuri's hand and he put that hand on the patient's wounded parts. He let himself imagine the patient's pain and reduce it by healing it.

Then someone came in shouting, "your Excellency, Gisela, please attend to his Excellency, Wolfram, he wounds are not light, he is currently unconscious!" with that shinning head of that soldier, you could tell it was Dorcascus.

Yuuri was alerted by the situation, he looked at Gisela's direction, "miss Gisela, may you allow me to go?" Yuuri asked.

"you know, if you are going to heal Wolfram, it is going to be hard, you can only have healed 8 patients here, or else it is going to be really painful. How many have you healed?" Gisela asked.

"oh then that's fine cause I have only healed 5, plenty of energy left!" lied Yuuri. Actually he had already healed 15 patients and those accumulated 5%s are already hurting like a slit wound. But since it was Wolfram, it did not matter.

"then please follow Dorcascus to tend to Wolfram." Gisela ordered.

Yuuri dropped down all the work he was doing and went with Dorcascus. They went through long stone hallways, turning left and right at corners. Finally, they arrived at a private resting room. Yuuri pushed open the door and saw that Conrad, Gwendal, Yozak, Günter and even Cheri was standing in the room looking rather worried. "Was Wolfram's condition really that bad?" thought Yuuri.

At the sight of Yuuri everyone in the room was shocked, "what are you here for?" asked Gwendal coldly.

There was no answer from Yuuri. Yuuri only continued to walk towards the bed, not caring what the others had to say. He stopped at the bedside, Wolfram was really beaten up. Bruises, small cuts were everywhere, he had two broken ribs. This really made Yuuri wonder whether his majutsu was that strong.

"I shall start healing him now, so if you all don't mind, please leave the room for a while." Said Yuuri, turning back to the crowd.

"hey kid, how do we know whether or not you would do anything weird to his excellency while we are outside?" asked Yozak with his arms folded.

"then feel free to leave a soldier in here so that he may yell if I do anything weird." Replied Yuuri. He did not want to leave any of the ones he knew better before because they might recognize him after a long stare.

"fair enough," replied Günter, "we shall leave Dorcascus in here and we will all wait outside."

Then, they all went out while Dorcascus came in. Yuuri observed more detaily where Wolfram was hurt. He came to a conclusion that it would really be too much for him to handle, but he did not care, he had to save Wolfram.

He let maryoku seep put from his hand and put that hand on Wolfram's chest where the two broken ribs were. Yuuri reached out to Wolfram's pain and shared it, it was bad, the pain shot up his spine, it felt like he had gotten a minor stab wound. Soon Wolfram's ribs were back in place and were back in one piece. Now, Wolfram's breathing became a bit more even, but Yuuri could not stop, the quicker he was done, the quicker Wolfram could feel better.

Yuuri continued to heal Wolfram's wounds, so that Wolfram's smooth pale skin could be seen once again. Wolfram's wounds were perfectly healed, he was not in pain anymore, he was like his normal strong self again, Yuuri had healed him all the way through, leaving there no need for some wounds to heal themselves.

Yuuri was in serious pain now, it hurt really badly and his maryoku was almost out. "take care of yourself, Wolfram." Whispered Yuuri to a point that only Wolfram could hear him, that is if he was awake. Before leaving, Yuuri put his hand on Wolfram's chest and gave him extra healing service, just to make him feel even better but leaving just enough maryoku in his own body to keep him alive.

Yuuri turned away from Wolfram and tried to walk to the door, only to find that walking was already hard.

"Sir Yuuji!" cried Dorcascus as he rushed over to him, "are you ok? Do you need to see Gisela?" Yuuri did not answer him, "then shall I carry you?"

Dorcascus' yelling caused the people outside to think that something had happened to Wolfram, they banged the door open, Conrad rushed inside first, "wolfra-"

The others followed in, only to find that it was Yuuri that was in a bad condition. Cheri asked, "What happen? Sir Yuuji?"

Yuuri was kneeling on the floor panting really hard, after a few seconds, he closed his eyes, inhaled and stood up shakily. "Wolfram is physically all well now, but please let him sleep, he must be tired from the fight. I shall take my leave now, excuse me." Yuuri said as he shook off Dorcascus hand and headed for the door.

They all stared at Yuuri as he turned the door knob and left with Dorcascus following. They all wondered why he was in such a bad state, Yuuri's face was really pale, he looked so tired that he could sleep for 10 days straight. Just as they were wondering, Gisela slammed the door open and rushed in, "where is sir Yuuji?"

"He just left." Replied Cheri to Gisela, who was already checking up on Wolfram.

Gisela's face became more and more shocked as he checked Wolfram's body, "that idiot! I told him that he could only come heal Wolfram if he had only healed less than 8 people! After he left, I heard from the patients that he had already healed 15! That alone is already too much! And he lied to me and came to heal Wolfram! He even used the full recovery healing majutsu where the patients wounds would be 100% healed! This is just too rash! He might die this way!"

"So that is why he looked so weak…" mumbled Yozak.

At that moment, the door opened, "I have returned!" announced Dorcascus, "sir Yuuji has left already!"

Gisela's eyes darted at Dorcascus, causing him to jump in fear. "you useless soldier! Why did you let him leave! Who taught you to let such weak people be out on their own?! Huh?! Answer me!" yelled Gisela as she grabbed Dorcascus' uniform collar.

"Sergeant Gisela, please forgive me! Let me explain!" cried Dorcascus, "I tried to ask sir Yuuji to say for a rest but he refused! He said that he would be fine! I offered to give him s ride but he refused! I even asked if he needed an escort! But he asked me to go back and help the others! Sergeant Gisela! Please let me go! I tried my best! It really wasn't my fault!"

"Fine!" grumbled Gisela as she let go of Dorcascus. Just as Dorcascus was about to sneak out, Gisela shouted again, "Dorcascus!"

"Yes!" replied Dorcascus as he immediately turned towards Gisela with his back really straight and with his eyes staring straight at the ceiling.

"So? Did he say where he was going?" asked Gisela, this time more calmly.

"Yes! I asked and he said that he was going to go home for a rest!" replied Dorcascus who was still standing stiffly.

"And which direction may that be?" asked Gisela again.

"He turned right at the gate!" replied Dorcascus in his normal loud voice.

"Gisela," said Cheri softly, "do we have to send people to find him?"

"Yes," replied Gisela, looking at the others way, "that would be best, we wouldn't want him to collapse on his way home."

"It's none of our business whether or not he collapses or even dies, he isn't the Maou, as he said." Mumbled Gwendal.

The door slammed open and there stood Anissina, "stop that grumbling! Gwendal! it IS your business and even ours!" snapped anissinia as she stomped into the room, "you want to know why? Cause he just saved your brother's life and is our future companion, for he had won the battle and now is the Captain of the Brinel group. Have you forgotten? Gwendal?"

"Gisela, does this Yuuji live in the countryside?" asked Conrad, breaking all the shouting with his calm voice.

"Let's see… as I remember, I think…" mumbled Gisela, as she tried to search her memory for that piece of information.

"According to this sign-up booklet," said Anissina as she flipped through the booklet, "ah here! Shiima Yuuji, 19 years old, is good at swordsmanship and using maryoku, is a part time teacher at a fighting academy, has no family, lives alone in a hut in the countryside… oh! So he does live in the countryside, why ask…" she looked up from the booklet, only to see 4 shocked men faces.

"that was him? That was the kid that looked like Yuuri Heika?"mumbled Günter, "

"he hides his face, uses the same style of maryoku as kiddo, really cares for others, helps others even though it will do him no good… these all fit the description of him… the only thing that does not make sense is the swordsmanship…" said Yozak to himself.

"it must be our imagination, the lost of Heika has caused us a lot of grief and Heika has made a great difference in our lives, so it must be that! It must be because of that, so that is we see Heika in sir Yuuji." Said Günter, trying to assure himself that his precious Maou was dead, so that this would not give him false hope.

Everyone stayed silent to ponder on this matter.

Reacting quickly, "Dorcascus, prepare a group of 20 soldiers to find sir Yuuji!" ordered Gwendal, "now!"

"Yes sir!" replied Dorcascus and he ran out of the room to start the search."

"Your excellency, shall we go too?" asked Yozak.

"Conrad," said Gwendal, "you and Yozak lead the search!"

"Yes!" said the both of them at the same time.

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Was that better? This longer chapter? Also, did it make sense? Sorry if it was hard to understand. Though, I hope you enjoyed the storyline! Please review!


	7. To the Shinou Shrine

Disclaimer: I love KKM, but I don't own it!

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Yuuri was heading home as he stated. As he was walking, or you could say, almost crawling, he noticed that soldiers were looking for something.

He heard, "have you found sir Yuuji yet?"

Then he realized that Gisela must have noticed that he was way over the healing quota and dispatched soldiers to drag him back to rest.

He did not want to be under their care for too long, for they might come to understand that he was actually their Maou. He thought about returning home quicker, but that would not do, because they all knew where he lived and would find him there. He thought for a while, _a place where the soldiers cannot find me. Where can that be? Soldiers are men, a place where men cannot go… Shinou shrine! Before, Shinou said that i could enter the shrine any time I wanted for protection or anything. I just had to tell Ururike!_

Yuuri grinned in victory, the Shinou shrine it was.

Yuuri hid his face with his scarf even more and ran from tree to tree to hide, but with great difficulty. Soon as he was out of the soldiers' sight, so he headed for the street that led to the Shinou shrine. He walked tiredly along that long windy road which nobody walked, trying to ease his mind by looking at the beauty of nature around him. But something caught his eye as he walked, the blood pledge castle, where he called home in Shin Makoku, where all his friends were. How nostalgic, that was where he spent his days indoors, watching all the interesting things happening in there. As he pondered at the old happy memories, time passed really quickly and soon he was right in front of the shrine.

"Well I'm finally here, I hope Ururike can do something about this pain." Moaned Yuuri as he walked through the first gates of the shrine, "also, I must have a chat with Shinou too…"

As he approached the entrance, the two female guards that were on duty there spotted him. They ran with their spears towards Yuuri, pointed them at Yuuri and one of them shouted, "Who are you? This is Shinou Heika's shrine, where all men are forbidden to come in! Why are you here? State yourself! Or else we will have to use force!"

Yuuri's body could not stand it any longer, most of his remaining energy slipped away, leaving Yuuri kneeling on one knee, his breath was heavy, he huffed, "just tell Ururike that Yuuji is here, she will let me in." the guards gave Yuuri a suspicious eye, Yuuri did not really have the time to fool around with them, so he raised his voice a bit, "just go ask her!" and added after a few seconds, "please."

After about 10 seconds of consideration, one of the guards signaled the other to go ask Ururike, while she herself continued to point her spear at Yuuri.

After 5 minutes, the guard came running back and she came back with Ururike right behind her. Everyone in the shrine was shocked to see the great priestess running around. Yuuri was so glad to see Ururike, "hi, Ururike. It has been a while hasn't it? The security here is as tight as usual." Chuckled Yuuri bitterly.

" Yuuri heik- , ah, no, sir Yuuji!" cried Ururike as she knelt down to the same height as Yuuri and grabbed his hand, "are you alright? Why are you in such a condition? Now, come in and stay here for as long as you wish."

"But, original priestess Ururike! He is a man!" shouted Ururike's one of the priestess that was beside Ururike.

"Of course I know he is a man! Shion!" snapped Ururike, she turned to the rest of the crowding priestesses, "this man here is Shinou Heika's honored guest, sir Yuuji! Neither will I or Shinou Heika tolerate anyone misbehaving in front of him! He is allowed to enter and leave the Shinou shrine at his wish! These are Shinou Heika's wish!"

_Wow__, Shinou! You sure have given me authority in here! "_

"He sure ha-" suddenly, Yuuri's chest tightened in pain, making breathing a really hard job. This pain was unbearable, soon darkness engulfed Yuuri and he saw no more.

At the sight of Yuuri falling like a doll, Ururike shouted, "sir Yuuji!" as she caught Yuuri in her arms, she reacted quickly, "Shion!"

"Yes!" replied Shion.

"Take sir Yuuji to a free room, and prepare towels and hot water! And do anything that would ease the pain! Get the others to help you!" ordered Ururike, "I will have to report this to Shinou Heika! Go now!" and the priestesses got to work.

Two of the stronger female guards came up and took Yuuri from Ururike's arms and started half carrying half dragging Yuuri to the guest room. They put Yuuri on the bed and waited for further instructions. Soon, priestesses came rushing in, with towels, buckets of hot water and many other stuff. When everything was stationed, most of the priestesses went out of the room, so that the remaining ones could work with more space.

Shion took lead, "take off his shirt, we will have to clean him up. He is in really bad shape, perhaps he is injured."

One of the priestess did as told, but to her surprise, "Shion, he is not injured at all! There are no injuries of any type… maybe his condition has something to do with the over usage of maryoku and majutsu!"

Shion thought for a while, "perhaps we should ask great priestess Ururike herself to have a check on him."

Just as the statement was made, Ururike appeared at the door, "all of you get out, I will see what the problem is."

Everyone did as they were told and went out. "Ururike, you can leave too, I shall take a look at him instead."

"Geika, when did you return?" said Ururike, surprised that the great sage was there.

"I heard from Shinou what happened to Shibuya, so I dropped by." Said Murata as he fixed his glasses, "now, this has caused a bit of a ruckus, go settle the matter with your priestesses."

"yes, I shall tend to this matter at once." Said Ururike and she left with a bow.

Once Murata had confirmed that no one was around anymore, he said in a low voice, "Shinou, you can come out now! Shibuya's condition is out of my knowledge and power to cure. Now come out and fix it,before he dies _again_. You spoiled king!"

Out of nowhere, Shinou stepped out, "ok, ok, my great sage, I will do something about it." Said Shinou, pushing off Murata.

Shinou took a look at Yuuri, "you sure overdid it... reckless as ever, thinking about others before yourself... but that is one of the reason I chose you as my ideal Maou. but there is not much I can do for you now, for this is not something I can just heal, your exhaustion from healing others is beyond what a normal person can handle. The stress from keeping your secret is great, but sooner or later you will have to show yourself as Shibuya Yuuri, the 27th Maou again. For now just rest in my shrine, for more challenges are waiting for you." Shinou put his hand above the sleeping Yuuri and wrapped him in a warm light.

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Yuuri's body felt very stiff and heavy, he tried to move but was not quite successful, so he opened his eyes instead. Bright light blinded his sight, but after a few seconds, his eyesight adjusted and found himself in an unfamiliar room. "Where am I?" he mumbled.

"Have you forgotten? After your incident, you came crawling to my shrine, so we took you in." said Shinou from his seat beside Yuuri's bed.

"Shinou… eh? Murata? Even you are here?" said Yuuri, rather surprised that the two important people were there.

"yo! Shibuya!" waved Murata with his silly wide smile.

"Good thing you woke up! We were starting to worry that you may not wake up since you have been out for a week already!" said Shinou.

Surprised to hear that, Yuuri exclaimed, "a week?! Really? Wow!" suddenly remembering, Yuuri sat up and continued in a more serious tone, "Shinou, is Soushu really gone? I have noticed that some people have been possessed by soushu. Tell me, has Soushu been revived?

"oh? Not bad Shibuya. Good observation. Indeed, a secret organization has revived Soushu, Soushu is finding every little trace of evil in people's hearts and tries to use them, again." Said Murata.

"but, for now, it is not much of a problem, just let it be. One day when the matter gets worse, you will have to go back to being their Maou and take back the responsibility of protecting the country. Is that understood? Yuuri?" said Shinou.

"That means I can continue to act as Yuuji now, as the captain of Brinel? But if I have to return when I am not ready, then I will go back being that useless king. The one that does not deserve their anything!" shouted Yuuri in desperation.

"Yes, you can live as Yuuji for now. If you are afraid that you would not be ready, then do more for them now and be ready to return anytime!" Said Shinou.

"but-"

"No buts, Yuuri. That is how it works, you decided to not return to them after I have revived you! You want to be a better Maou, but things can't work exactly the way you want it to! Don't forget that you are still the Maou, shin makoku's well fair comes first than anything!" said Shinou firmly.

There was silence for a minute, then Yuuri asked, "Murata, why am I in my pajamas?" he paused for a moment and continued in a shocked expression, "di- di- did the priestesses help me change?"

"Idiot! Of course not! How would I or Ururike let our precious prietesses do something like that?" denied Shinou.

"I changed your clothes, Shibuya. I got them from mama before I came over here." Said Murata, who was amused by both Shinou and Yuuri's statements.

"I see, I see. Well, now that I am up, I suppose I should go. "said Yuuri, "Murata, where are my clothes?"

"I retrieved these from your hut." Said Murata as he gave a set of unfamiliar clothes to Yuuri.

Yuuri took them and realized that this was his new uniform as the Captain of Brinel. There was a note in between the clothes, it said, "please wear this and come to the blood pledge castle after a week."

"It was written on the day of the competition, so a week…" mumbled Yuuri, then he realized, "that is today! I have to go there today!"

"Well then, you better get changed!" said Murata.

"I will!" Yuuri took his clothes and disappeared.

After five minutes, Yuuri came back in his uniform, still fixing the sleeves of his uniform. He wore a white blouse inside with the first two buttons opened and wore a short black tie which was loosely tied. He tucked the white blouse into his dark purple (very close to black) pants, which were suitable for riding. He wore black boots that wrapped his legs up to under his knees in front of his pants, showing the lines of Yuuri's long thin legs. Yuuri wore a slightly long jacket (something like Conrad's, but a bit shorter. So there will be no need to wear a belt outside) with golden lines as decoration and a Beret (a hat) that was of the same colour with his pants.

Yuuri stood there, "so, how do I look?"

The two were two shocked to talk for a moment, but Murata said first, "I always thought that you looked cool in your school uniform, but you look even cooler in these! So it is true that handsome men looks even cooler in some clothes."

"This uniform is nicely designed, quite casual and flashy. Maybe, cause the Brinel has to go on many missions. Not bad, I like it." Shinou continued to look at Yuuri from up to down, down to up, "have you secured your beret tight enough? We wouldn't want people seeing that you have black hair." Noted Shinou.

"Yes! I am all set! Wait! I am missing a sword! Shinou! Do you have any stored here?" asked Yuuri.

"Yes, we do have the same kind of sword your subjects uses. Want those?" said Shinou.

"Sure!" replied Yuuri.

"Ok, then follow me Shibuya!" said Murata as he walked out the door.

"Bye then, Shinou!" said Yuuri as he waved to him.

"Do your best!" nodded Shinou.

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Was the description of the uniform good enough? I thought that it was not that easy to imagine. The Brinel uniform is kind of…not military-like…

Hope you all liked it!


	8. Brinel

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM! But I do own Brinel!

Enjoy!!

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And Yuuri followed Murata out of the room.

They arrived at the weapon room, Murata fumbled with the stuff for a while and finally, he handed Yuuri a swords with a sheath and a belt that could hold the sword and sheath at his hip. Yuuri took them and hung the belt across his right shoulder to his left hip and the belt circled his hip. Yuuri secured the sword at his left hip and he was done.

"All done!" he cried.

"You might want to wear this!" Murata handed him a long white cotton scarf, "now, it is for fashion, but you may need it to hide your face on certain occasions!"

Yuuri took it and hung it around his neck, "thanks Murata!"

"No problem."

They headed for the gates, as they did, priestesses bowed to them and many of them were captured by Yuuri's coolness, after all, Yuuri IS a handsome man in this world. When they got to the gates, a dark brown horse held by a female guard stood there. She handed the reins to Yuuri and left.

"This will be your horse, but I'd rather it not be black, brcause it will just make you look even more like your old self. Anyways, this horse is from Shinou, you better thank him later." Said Murata as he patted the horse on its neck.

"I will." Said Yuuri and he put his left feet on the stirrup and climbed onto the saddle. He held the reins tightly and sat with his back straight.

"You'll manage?" asked Murata from below.

Yuuri looked down and chuckled, "after all that training Shinou gave me, I think I can mangae to ride a horse. Well, I'll be off now! See you Murata!" and Yuuri galloped away with the horse.

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Judging from the sun, it was noon now. The sun shone on the whole Shin Makoku, seems like it would be a good day today. Yuuri went faster and faster along the long ascending road that led to the blood pledge castle.

Soon Yuuri came to the gates of the castle, it looked so much more familiar close up. He got off his horse at the gates, the guards there immediately recognized who Yuuri was, through his uniform.

"Captain Yuuji! Please let me take your horse to the stables." Yuuri nodded and gave the reins to that guard and it walked away with it.

The other guard continued, "Captain Yuuji, please follow me, they have been waiting for your arrival." So Yuuri followed the guard through the gates and to that big plain land in front of the castle entrance.

The guard left Yuuri and Yuuri saw that Conrad, Gwendal, Yozak, Wolfram, Günter, Gisela, Cheri, Anissina and a group of soldiers that had similar uniforms as Yuuri stood there, they seemed to be waiting for him.

Conrad was standing against a wall with Yozak, Gwendal was standing in front of the castle with his arms crossed, Günter stood beside Gwendal with his hands clenched together, Wolfram sat on the steps, Anissina stood with one of her hands on her hips, Cheri stood beside her as elegantly as possible, the group of Brinel soldiers stood in a perfect square back straight, hands straight, heads straight, eyes straight, Gisela was the one that was pasting around, she seemed to be worried.

Yuuri exhaled, put on a cheerful face (he decided to still be the happy happy go him but keeping a distance with everyone) and stepped out of the shadow, he made his presence known by a short announcement, "yo, everyone!" he said as he walked closer and closer to the others, he got their attention, "it's been a week! Really, long time no see! You all came here to greet me? How ni-"

Just as he wanted to finish his sentence, he found that Gisela was right in front of him, she seemed quite angry. "Miss gisel-"

"You idiot!" shouted Gisela right at Yuuri's face, "I told you not to heal Wolfram if you already healed too many and yet you lied. You know that that could have killed you!"

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it, is there? It has passed already." said Yuuri with a too-bad look.

"Where have you been this whole week?" asked Conrad.

"At a friend's house." Replied Yuuri.

"You were nowhere near your own house." Said Yozak.

"Well, you know, I am a really sociable person, so my best friend happens to live rather far from me. You know, I won the battle, it is a very happy thing, naturally I would tell my best friend at once and celebrate together." Explained Yuuri still with a smile on.

"Um, thank you for saving my son, sir Yuuji." Said Cheri.

Yuuri chuckled, "don't mind it, don't mind it! Of course I wouldn't let a pretty boy like Wolfram die."

"I am very busy, I don't have time for chit chat! So let's get on to the main topic!" said Gwendal who totally changed the mood.

"Ok, so let's get on to the main topic." Said Yuuri.

"Brinel, introduce each of yourselves to your Captain." Ordered Günter.

A familiar face replied, "yes sir," he turned back to face Yuuri, "Captain Yuuji, I don't know if you remember, but I am Hijiri, I give you my deepest apologies for what I have done during the battle, I don't know what got to me, I rea-" Hijiri was stopped by Yuuri.

"No need to be that frantic. Its fine, I didn't put that incident in my mind, so just introduce yourself naturally." Said Yuuri with a warm smile.

"Ah-oh, alright," replied Hijiri, who was quite surprised with his Captain's reply, he then continued with more confidence, "I am Hijiri, vice Captain of Brinel. It is a great honor to work under you, Captain Yuuji."

And introductions continued one after another, there were about 30 soldiers in Brinel. After all of them were done, it was Yuuri's turn, "I am Yuuji Shiima, Captain of Brinel, I hope we have fun working together!"

"Yes sir!" the whole of Brinel replied.

"Hijiri!" called Gwendal.

"Here." Replied Hijiri.

"Take care of the rest!" ordered Gwendal.

"Yes sir!"

"Thank you everyone for coming by today! I will be leaving with my men now! Bye bye!" announced Yuuri and he turned around to be followed by the whole Brinel.

----------

Hijiri and Yuuri walked side by side and Hijiri explained on the way, "Captain Yuuji, about your bedroom, you have two, one in the Blood Pledge Castle and one in the Brinel headquarter right beside the castle. You may choose to rest in either one you like. Now, would you like to browse around the castle first or the Brinel headquarter first?" asked Hijiri.

_I already know the castle well enough, it won't be much fun wandering around there, so maybe I will go see the Brinel headquarters first._

He replied Hijiri, "let's go to the Brinel headquarters first!"

"understood." replied Hijiri.

They walked around the castle and came to a fairly big building, "we're here, Captain Yuuji, the Brinel headquarter." Announced Hijiri.

Yuuri stood in front of the headquarters for a while, pretty impressed that there was such a place for Brinel. Only Hijiri and Yuuri continued in because it was unnecessary for so many people to go in. Hijiri took Yuuri to the kitchen, dining room, meeting room, weapon room, storage room, the baths, the soldiers' rooms and of course and at last Yuuri's own Captain room.

"Captain, this is your room." Said Hijiri.

Yuuri stepped in and found that it was quite different from the normal rooms. Of course it was much bigger, perhaps twice the size, and the bed was bigger, Yuuri's was queen size while the others' were just a single bed. Yuuri had bigger closets and of course everthing in there looked one level more high class than the others'. There was a balcony where Yuuri could see most of Shin Makoku and in front of the balcony was a huge study table that faced the door.

"Eh? What is this table doing here for? Ah! Don't tell me I will have to do paper work!" whined Yuuri to his vice captain, since he remembered how boring it was to do all that during his Maou days.

Hijiri was pretty amused by Yuuri's reaction, "Captain Yuuji! Of course you would have to do paper work! It is a part of Captains' work! You can't expect that we are here just for fighting."

"I know, but I really don't want to do it. I will have to read it, analyze it and then decide whether or not to agree to it! Such a hard process! Ah! Hijiri… you would help me, right?" said Yuuri evilly.

"If I must." Said Hijiri who obviously did not want to do it either, then he continued, "Captain Yuuji, I think it would be best if you lived in the castle for the first week, it is necessary that you deepen your bonds with the other Captains."

"Well, I suppose you are right. It will be easier to co-operate it we know each other." Said Yuuri.

"If that is it, then shall we proceed to the castle?" asked Hijiri.

"I suppose so."

They arrived at the place where they left the rest of the group, "you are all dismissed, work under Hijiri when I am absent! I will be living in the castle for this week, we will still meet during day time for breakfast, lunch, patrols and training, so don't slack off while I'm not here!" ordered Yuuri.

"Yes sir!" they all replied at the same time.

They went through the whole castle even though Yuuri was sure that he knew the way better than Hijiri, but to avoid suspicion, this has to be done, his bedroom in the castle was more or less the same as the one in the Brinel headquarters, though a bit fancier. After all, this was the castle.

"Captain Yuuji, I shall leave you to rest now, if you need anything you can come to ask me or you can ask anyone in the castle. Your luggage will be here in a moment. Dinner with the lords will be at 6:30, please arrive at the dining room on time. Breakfast tomorrow morning is at 6:30." Hijiri paused for a moment and bowed slightly, "then I shall take my leave now."

"ok, see you tomorrow, Hijiri, thanks for everything today." Said Yuuri with a nod.

Hijiri left and Yuuri finally got to rest, he was still a bit sleepy since he just recovered this morning. He took a look at the clock that was mounted on the wall, 6:00, "wah, time flies, after a while it is already 6:00, it just may be true that happy times past faster." Chuckled Yuuri.

As Hijiri said, a soldier arrived after a few minutes with his luggage, and guess what, it was that familiar soldier once again, Dorcascus, and once again with his loud voice, "sorry for the intrusion! Captain Yuuji! I'm here with your luggage! Where shall I put it?"

"Oh! Dorcascus! Nice to see you again! Just put my luggage against the wall over there!" instructed Yuuri as he pointed to a wall in his room.

When Dorcascus was done, "thanks, you can g-"

"I'm really sorry I let you go on your own after the competition! Captain Yuuji! Please forgive me!" shouted Dorcascus with his head bowed low.

It took a few seconds for Yuuri to take in that apology, then he burst out in laughter, "ha- ha- ha- ha! Dorcascus! That is nothing to be sorry about let alone apologize about. It was my choice that I left."

Dorcascus continued to ask in a worried face, "then were you alright after? We could not find you, nothing along the way to your home and nowhere near! Where did you go? Please tell me!"

Yuuri was surprised and teased, "oh? Dorcascus? Were you perhaps worried about me? Hmmn?" then when the teasing was done, he replied the poor soldiers original question, "if you ask where I was, I was at my friends house, which is rather far from my hut, of course you wouldn't be able to find me! You can't turn over the whole Shin Makoku to just find one guy! Am I right?" said Yuuri with a warm smile.

"I suppose so…"

"So go now! Let me rest for a while before dinner, alright?" said Yuuri as he pushed Dorcascus towards the door.

"Ah! Ah!" and he was pushed out of the room.

Yuuri lay down on the huge bed, "heh, the bed feels so big without Greta and Wolfram sleeping with me, but….so lonely…" sighed Yuuri.

He just continued to lie there for the nest 15 minutes, not moving, not doing anything, just planning what to do in his 'Yuuji' days.

Soon, it was 6:15, he had to get going. He fixed his hair a bit, straightened his uniform and headed for the dining hall. He passed through hallways, as he passed by the kitchen he heard one of the maids sigh, "princess didn't eat much either today, she is getting so weak now."

This shocked Yuuri, he pressed his ear at the door to hear more clearly, another maid continued, "She is always staring into space, and not doing much, even when we talk to her, she doesn't seem to hear us. This way, princess won't last much longer!"

Another maid said, "You can't blame her, Yuuri Heika's death must have caused her a great shock! After all, Yuuri Heika was the first one to give her love and care, he was her father!"

Yuuri never thought that his death could affect this little girl so much, he was really worried, he barged into the kitchen and asked, "is gret-, eh no, the princess' condition really that bad?"

The three maids were quite surprised to see the new captain there, they immediately bowed low, "Captain Yuuji!"

"No need for that! Can you just please tell me about the princess' detailed condition?"

They stood up straight and one of them started with a sad face, "ever since the day Yuuri Heika passed away, the princess has been in great shock, at first she did not eat, did not sleep, did not say anything, sometimes she would just cry to herself. We got doctors to have a look at her, but they say that there is no problem with her health, that it must be the shock. After a month or two , she started eating more normally, but still not enough. She still continued to stay silent. It has been like that ever since. We don't know if she would last any longer this way, it's too much for a child that young."

The other asked, "But sir Yuuji, I don't think you know our princess personally, so why ask?"

"I'm just worried about a child, nothing more, sorry to have disturbed you all." And Yuuri went out of the door.

_I must do something about this. _

Yuuri was the last to come into the dining hall, everyone was already seated, Cheri sat at the head seat, Gwendal and Günter sat on her right while Wolfram and Conrad on her left. The seats were evenly distributed across the large dining table. There was a free seat left on the other head seat, Yuuri sat there as instructed.

He apologized, "sorry for being late, the castle is just too big, can't remember the way to the dining room yet."

"It's ok, sir Yuuji, indeed, the castle is big. You will have to get used to it soon!" said Cheri with a smile.

Soon came food, as they were eating, Günter suddenly asked, "sir Shiima,-"

Yuuri corrected quicky, "Yuuji is fine just call me Yuuji. Please just call me Yuuji, everyone."

Günter corrected himself and continued, "then, Yuuji, may I ask where you trained to have such great swordsmanship?"

This question surprised Yuuri, he wasn't quite expecting it. _it is Shinou, so maybe I can say… master shinnoki…_

Yuuri replied, "I was taught by shinnoki, master shinnoki. He was famous but is not now, for he has hidden his identity, also he's famous days were way before you guys were born, as you must not have heard of him."

Gwendal stopped eating, "this master shinnoki must be something, he has trained you well. Is there a possibility that we may meet him?"

"sadly, master shinnoki has already passed away." Said Yuuri. It was true, Shinou was dead.

"sorry to have brought up that." Said Conrad.

"nope it is totally fine. No hard feelings. "

"then why do you have such great maryoku? That is not usual for a commoner like you!" said Wolfram.

"hmmn…not usual. Then I suppose that I am unusual? you can say that. I have had great maryoku powers since I was a kid. But I never knew why." Replied Yuuri with a chuckle.

The meal continued with Yuuri asking them what they did each day, what their duties were and stuff, though, he already knew very clearly.

But he wasn't sure about one thing, "what do Brinel and i do each day?"

"Brinel is a group of justice, so they patrol around town to catch bad people on days that there are no missions." Replied Gwendal, who was already done with his meal.

"wouldn't it cause a ruckus if the whole group walks out to the streets in uniform?" asked Yuuri.

"Yuuji," said Günter, while dabbing his lips with his napkin, that's why Brinel's uniform is more casual. The only thing that looks military-like is that beret, so when Brinel goes on patrols, the beret would not have to be worn."

"Oh, I see, I see," realizing how his work worked, "so basically, Brinel protects Shin Makoku in disguise every day."

"Yes, that is what you do." Said Conrad, with his same gentle voice.

"I'm finished with my food," announced Wolfram, he turned to look at his mother, who had the greatest authority among this dining table, "mother, may I leave now?" he asked.

"You may all leave now." Answered Cheri.

"Bye, mother."

"Excuse me, mother."

"I'll take my leave now, mother."

"Excuse me , lady Cheri."

"Bye, see you tomorrow, lady Cheri!" waved Yuuri.

"Bye, sir Yuuji, work hard tomorrow! Have fun!" waved back Cheri, "see you tomorrow!" with a very beautiful smile.

Yuuji closed the door behind him and headed for a room, his precious little daughter's room, Greta's room.

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How was that? OK? Please review!


	9. Greta

Ok. I know everyone does not like short chapters, but the next chapter cannot relate to this one anyhow. So I had to separate it into this small chapter. Sorry!

Well, Yuuri and Greta… what will happen? Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM!!

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Yuuri walked to the door which he had once always come to. He did not knock, but just tip toed in and closed the door quietly behind him. Doing this made him feel like a thief…

He had expected Greta to be asleep, but to his surprise, the little girl was just sitting on her bed, looking aimlessly at the far sky. She had grown thinner, the usual energy seemed to be locked away and her face was blank, totally blank.

Greta seemed to have noticed someone had entered her room, she turned to Yuuri's direction, "who is it there?" she asked in a soft dull voice.

It pained Yuuri to see her in such a state, he did not answer but continued to walk towards Greta and Greta just kept her eyes on Yuuri as he approached. Yuuri knelt in front of the bed where Greta sat, so that he could look up at her and vice versa.

Yuuri took Greta's small hands into his, Greta looked at him, puzzled. Yuuri gave her a warm smile and let go of one hand. He slowly reached for his beret on his head and pulled it off, revealing his black hair. The moon light shone on his face, clearly showing his black eyes and black hair, his smile, his face. "Greta." Yuuri whispered, with a smile on his face.

Now, Greta's face was filled with one expression, disbelief. "Yu-uri?" she managed to stutter.

"Yes, Greta, it is me." Replied Yuuri in his gentle voice.

Greta's eyes began to water up, "Yuuri? Is that really you?"

"Yes, Greta."

Greta finally let of all the emotions that were stuck in her all this time. She jumped into Yuuri's arms and enjoyed the comfort and embrace. "Yuuri?"

"Yes. Greta."

"Yuuri?"

"Yes, Greta."

"Yuuri?"

"Yes, Greta."

"Yuuri?"

"Yes, my dear princess."

Greta stayed in Yuuri's arms, they were both sitting on the floor. She looked at Yuuri's face and patted at it, as if just to confirm. "it's really you, Yuuri."

"Eh, it is me, Greta. I heard you haven't been eating, that is not good, you know? Little girls have to eat to be able to grow up into clever women like lady Cheri, Anissina and Gisela." Said Yuuri, reminding his daughter how important it is to have a balanced diet.

"That was because Greta did not have the appetite to eat if Yuuri wasn't there! Where were you all this time? If you were alive, why did you not come back to see Greta? Do you hate Greta?" said Greta, raising her voice after each question.

"Shh, Greta, no one should know I am here. You know, I am now working in the castle as Captain of Brinel, Shiima Yuuji, not the 27th Maou, Shibuya Yuuri. So if anyone finds out I am here, they would think I am attacking the princess. Do you understand?" asked Yuuri softly.

Greta nodded as a response.

"Don't cry anymore, Greta," said Yuuri as he wiped her tears off, "of course I don't hate you Greta, you are my precious little daughter. If I had hated you, why would I tell you first that I am alive?"

He continued, "Greta, you know? I think that I was quite a useless Maou, I haven't done anything to gain everyone's trust and respect and yet they do. I want to gain it, I want to be worthy of it! That is why after Shinou revived me, I did not immediately return to everybody, I was trained by Shinou in different areas, so that I may be a better Maou."

"Don't you think it would not be too good if I just appear and say, 'yo! I am Shibuya Yuuri! Take me back as your Maou!' or something like that? That is why I decided to earn my seat, that's why I am Captain Yuuji of Brinel now." Explained Yuuri.

"I see, so you don't want anyone to know that you are Yuuri?" asked Greta.

"Yes, Greta, so, can you keep this secret between us only? Can I trust that you won't tell anyone? That you will call me Captain Yuuji in front of others, that you will act as if you don't know who I am? Can you do that for me? Greta?" asked Yuuri.

"Yup! I will do anything for you, _Captain Yuuji_." Said Greta in her long not used cheerful voice.

"Thanks, Greta, I will tell them in time, but not now. So now that all your worries are cleared, you have to mind your health! Ok?" asked Yuuri.

"Yes sir!"

And the father and daughter continued to talk until mid-night, bringing back this one piece of old event.

"Good night, Greta." Whispered Yuuri as he tucked Greta into her bed.

"Stay with me, Yuuri! Don't leave!" cried Greta.

"You know I can't stay for too long, Greta, please understand."

"But you might disappear again! I don't want to lose Yuuri again! I don't want to be alone again!"

"I will always be near you, fear not, I will always be there to help you. To the least shall I promise that I will come and see you at least once a week at night?"

Greta thought for a while, "fair enough! Don't break your promise! Let's shake pinkies!"

"Ok." And the promise was made, "good night Greta, sleep tight."

"Good night, Yuuri." Whispered Greta to Yuuri who had just left her room.

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So was that a good father-daughter reunion? Hope you enjoyed! Review please!!!


	10. The First Patrol

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM! But Brinel and Hijiri are mine!

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Yuuri woke up at 6:00 in the morning did the normal morning stuff, washing his face, brushing his teeth, combing his hair and putting on his uniform. He looked in the mirror, "yup, disguise no problem, no black is showing."

He had spent enough time with the ones in the castle already, now he had to deepen the bonds between Captain and subordinates. So he decided to have breakfast with all the Brinel soldiers.

Yuuri approached the two Brinel guards who were at the door, obviously on duty. "Captain Yuuji!" they both saluted at the same time.

Yuuri chuckled, "it's ok, no need to be so stiff. Just relax."

"Your concern is deeply appreciated, Captain!" replied one of them.

"It is almost breakfast time, coming in yet?" asked Yuuri.

"We are on duty until after breakfast time. We will eat after everyone does." Replied the other.

"I see, I see, security measures." Mumbled Yuuri to himself, he looked back at the two and said, "thanks for your hard work!"

The two guards were quite surprised, but reacted quickly still, "yes Captain!"

Yuuri pushed open the doors of the headquarters and headed to the dining room, surprised to see that everyone was already seated, with food in front of them, but not eating. At the sight of Yuuri entering, everyone stood up and looked towards Yuuri, "good morning, Captain!"

Yuuri stood there for a while, not quite understanding what happened, then he realized, "oh!" and with a very warm morning smile, "good morning everyone!"

Yuuri scanned across the long long rectangular table that is able to fit 31 people around it and found his empty seat at the head of the table. He sat down and looked around him, Hijiri was beside him, he was puzzled, so he asked Hijiri, "Hijiri,"

"Yes? Captain?"

"Why hasn't everyone started eating yet?"

Many 'what?' faces swept across the table, including Hijiri, "Captain, it is absolutely not right to start eating before a higher rank on the same table!"

"So you mean you all can't eat until I eat?" asked Yuuri.

"Yes."

"I see," he looked up to face everyone and apologized, "I'm sorry for being late, I arrived a few minutes late, so if I come in later than 6:30, the set breakfast time, you may all start to eat, there will be no need to wait for me. Understood?"

There was a pause, and Hijiri answered for everyone, "understood."

"Well, now that that has been solved, let's eat!" said Yuuri and as commanded, they all did.

After 5 minutes, Yuuri realized another question, it was really quiet, nobody talked. There were only sounds of forks and knifes clashing while cutting food. Yuuri asked softly again, "Hijiri? Is Brinel such a serious group? No one's talking!"

"Actually, everyone here are friends, before you came, they were still playing around, it was quite lively. But it must be the rumor that you are a fierce person which made them naturally scared of you, therefore straightening up their attitudes." Replied Hijiri straightly.

"Do I really seem that scary? Hijiri?" said Yuuri, looking at Hijiri with puppy eyes.

Hijiri seemed to be surprised by the puppy eyes and let out a suppressed laugh, "Captain, if you really want to clear off the misunderstanding, I suggest that you either explain it or tell them through your actions."

Yuuri put on another 'I see' face and said, "Oh! Ok. Thanks for the advice Hijiri."

"Anytime, Captain."

Then breakfast continued. At least one in the team knew that their Captain wasn't all serious, in fact, quite kind and funny.

"Is everyone finished?" asked Yuuri at 7:00.

"Yes! Captain!"

"Ok, since everyone is finished," said Yuuri, then paused to ask Hijiri in a soft voice, "Hijiri? We are going for a patrol? Right?"

"Yes we should be."

"Ok," then continued in a voice so that everyone could hear, "I would like to have a small meeting with Hijiri, so we will be leaving for a patrol in half an hour. Please be ready by then outside the headquarters! Dismissed!"

Everyone stood up while Yuuri and Hijiri left the room, then left after them.

Yuuri and Hijiri went into Yuuri's Captain room. Yuuri sat down in his table, "Hijiri! Pull a chair to sit in front of me!"

Hijiri did as he was told and sat down. "Captain, what kind of meeting would you like to have?"

"I am Brinel's Captain but I know not much of its history and what we do. I would like to know more." Yuuri paused for a second and asked, "I don't think I have ever heard of Brinle before, why has it been assembled?"

Hijiri explained, "Brinel was actually assembled half a year ago by lord Günter, lord Conrad, lord Gwendal and lord Wolfram as a present to the Maou, Yuuri Heika. We were all personally chosen by them, so I can say, we are all elite soldiers. Yuuri Heika had only been working among a few people he knew best. So, the lords thought it was about time to let Yuuri Heika try to command a bigger unfamiliar group, they thought it might be a good opportunity. Sadly, a war broke out before we could be presented to Yuuri Heika and as you should know Yuuri Heika passed away to save Shin Makoku. That is why they had to find a Captain for this group instead."

"I see," mumbled Yuuri. S_o this group was originally assigned to me, how ironic can this get?_

The Yuuri changed the topic and asked, "So, I know that we patrol each day, but what else do we do?"

"We also train each day and sometimes, even paperwork comes in and on special occasions, missions. Each day works like this: 6:00 wake up, 6:30 breakfast, 7:15 head out for patrol or training, 12:30 we come back for lunch, training or patrol starts at 2:00, at 5:00 there is a rest for 30 minutes, 5:30 we do small things around the headquarters, perhaps cleaning the weapons, 6:30 we eat dinner and after that, you have your own time in your room. We either do patrol in the morning section or the afternoon section, either one." Said Hijiri.

Yuuri was impressed, "quite a tight schedule! So, do we have holidays? Without a break I'm afraid we might all die of tiredness!"

"Yes, we would, that is why we did assign holidays for each of our soldiers on Sundays and Saturdays each week. 15 on Sundays and 15 on Sundays. As for you, Captain, you can decide on whichever day you want to be on holiday." Said Hijiri.

"Ok, so for patrols, I heard that we go out in disguise, how exactly does it work?" asked Yuuri.

"Yes we do go on disguise, we take off our berets and maybe wear other accessories, that way, it will not be easy to tell that we are Brinel. Also, if we work in a big group of 30, it would be obviously that we are some kind of big group, so we would work in groups of 2, so a total of 15 groups, scattered around the whole capital. As for you, Captain, you may command any group you want or just wander around town observing us and still be on patrol."

"Ok, I understand now, so we will arrest anyone that does things against the law, to maintain peace around town. Wow! A group that stands by justice!" complimented Yuuri, "nice!"

"Captain, it's about time we get going, do you have any specific questions you would still want me to answer?" asked Hijiri.

"Hmn, I suppose I don't have any more questions for now, so let's go!" said Yuuri as he headed, for the door, then he remembered, "oh yeah, we have to take off our berets right? Hijiri, why don't you go back to your own room and get ready too? I'll meet you and everyone by the door in 5 minutes, ok?"

"I will inform them." And Hijiri went out of the door.

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"Well now that the beret is off, I will have to wear something else to cover up my hair," Yuuri fumbled through his stuff and found a cloth that had the same patterns and colours as his uniform jacket, he took it out, "I don't remember buying this… I suppose Murata must have known this would happen and prepared it for me. Thank you Murata, you're a life saver!"

Yuuri wrapped the cloth around his head like a bandana, this time the cloth was short, so there was no 'bandana ponytail' just a knot at the back of his head to secure the cloth. Yuuri went to the mirror to check if there were extra bits and pieces of hair sticking out, when he confirmed that his disguise was perfect, he picked up his sword secured it on his belt and went out of his room.

To his amazement, everyone was already there, "wow, how efficient…" he mumbled to himself, then in front of everyone he ordered, "get into your groups now, "and in a minute, 15 groups were formed, Yuuri was satisfied, so he walked forward towards the gate and got on his horse, "let's head out!" and of course, everyone got on their horses and followed.

At the moment they came to the end of the long road connecting blood pledge castle and the capital, Yuuri ordered, "All groups scatter! And as the usual practice, be back by 12:15! I will join some of you shortly, so go!"

"Yes Captain!" and they got off their horses, put them at the stable which was stationed there and equally headed out in different directions, rather casually.

"Well, I haven't been in town for a long time, I suppose I can walk around and at the same time observe. Good idea, good idea." Said Yuuri as he started to walk around.

The streets and stalls were more or less the same, people still sold stuff, it was still very crowded, but the once top selling products were not there anymore. They were not put out for sale anymore. The Maou manjuu, candies, bread and Maou and morgif cosplay. Yuuri could not see the children chasing around with their costumes on, nor could he see people buying bags of Maou manjuus, candies or bread anymore, all because there is no Maou now.

It seemed to Yuuri that the people were not as lively, the streets seemed to be one level quieter. Was it because of the war? Was it because their Maou was gone? Was it because their manjuus were taken away? Was it because there were no more 'Maou' chasing kids? Was there some problem in the government? Was the tax too expensive? What is it? Questions popped up in his mind and they all seemed to somehow linked up to Yuuri.

There were no more Maou manjuus, candies or bread and 'Maou' chasing kids because of his 'death', war because he did not seal the four boxes, their Maou was gone because he is here now, he can't deal with the government or taxes because he is just Brinel's Captain.

This all made Yuuri realize one thing, everything was his fault. It was his fault again. Realizing this, Yuuri stopped walking, stood there, really confused.

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Yuuri leaned against the closest wall and sighed, "Is what I am doing wrong? It would not benefit anyone except me, is it alright? I'm burdening them with all the work. But I really want to be a better Maou, but don't I have to solve problems that come first? A better Maou, a better country. Ah! This is so frustrating! Tsk!"

"Yaah!" a loud scream was heard from a jewelry store not far away from Yuuri, a lot of people came running out of the store, they all looked very scared. One of the Brinel group that was patrolling that area ran to the store, three went in and two stayed outside to calm the citizens. _Solve problems in front of you first, I suppose_. Thought Yuuri as he ran to the scene.

He came to the store's entrance and saw that inside, there were only a few people left. The shopkeeper, the shopkeeper's daughter, the thief and 3 of his men.

The situation looked like this:

'The thief held the shopkeeper's daughter by her neck and had a knife pointed at her throat, yelling, "Get me all the jewels that are worth more than ten million and put it in a bag! Or else I will kill this little girl!"

The shopkeeper was horrified, so without hesitation, he put all of the most expensive jewels in a bag.

At the same time Yuuri's men who were around had their swords out, circling the thief. Of course the thief noticed and warned, "Don't you dare come any closer! Or else she will die!" and the thief tightened his grip on the little girl's neck.

The little girl had tears all over her face, she was really scared, she screamed and screamed, tiring to get away from the thief.

And outside of the store, Yuuri's other 2 men were trying to get the other citizens to calm down and leave the scene since it was dangerous. Yuuri went to one of them and asked to confirm, "What's the situation?"

He immediately reported, "Captain! A jewelry thief has taken hostage and demands for the most expensive jewels as exchange!"

"As I thought." Mumbled Yuuri to himself.

Yuuri went through the door and approached the thief and the hostage. As the thief saw Yuuri approaching, he threatened him, but Yuuri did not stop, let alone look at the thief. Yuuri stopped one meter away from them.

The thief yelled, "Don't come any closer! If you do! I will cut off her head! Don't think I don't dare! You wouldn't want to try me!"

"You would be done before you can do anything to me or her." said Yuuri under his voice.

"What? What did you sa-?" yelled the thief, he could not finish his question, for something very shocking happened in front of him.

Yuuri glowed with blue maryoku, he hadn't changed into his Maou form, for if he did, all his disguises would disappear and it would be then known that he was the Maou. So Yuuri only used a small amount of his maryoku, which was still very strong, but little enough to still let him remain in his 'Yuuji' look.

"How cowardly! To take a powerless young girl as hostage for your own selfish deeds! Even if you had special reasons, I cannot forgive you for siding with the evil! Justice rules! Remember that! You shall be punished for your foolish act!" and at the command of his hand, a water dragon washed the thief away from the little girl and knocked him out.

Everyone, including Yuuri's men were surprised at how strong their captain was, how righteous he was. Of course, they knew that in order to be captain of Brinel, he had to have a certain amount of skills, but still, they were stunned.

Yuuri suppressed the maryoku back into his body, went to the unconscious thief and tied him up. He put the thief over his shoulders as if he were a bundle and said, "ok, finished. Let's get him to the prison for interrogation. "And started walking out of the store and towards the castle.

"Come on, you guys! We have to get to the castle! I can't possibly carry this guy all the way there! He is kind of heavy!" said Yuuri to his men without turning back.

Coming back to reality, the Brinels replied, "Yes!" and hurried after Yuuri.

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"Ah! That sure went well. But I suppose most thieves have a sad reason why they steal, that one was because he was short on money and his family was starving. Either way, stealing is still stealing, he will receive punishment. I think I wrote to put him in jail for five months." Mumbled Yuuri as he strolled down the hallways of the palace with few of his men behind him.

One of them was surprised, "captain, five months only? But he almost hurt a little girl."

"well if I put him in there for too long, his family would most likely starve to death. For now, I think his family can still get by, but not for long." Replied Yuuri.

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"Gyaah!" cried Hijiri and Yuuri as they slammed their swords together, clash clash clash, Hijiri's moves were fast, but not good enough to defeat Yuuri. Soon, Hijiri's swords was blown away by Yuuri's and he fell down.

"Ouch," winced Hijiri.

Yuuri got Hijiri's sword and gave it back to him, "are you alright?"

"Yes, that was good training! I hope that I can get as good as you some day, captain!" said Hijiri as he stood up from the ground.

"Ha-ha, well I'm that good. If you are going to aim, aim higher! But to get to my standard, you will have to take up 50 or 60 years of your life… if you want to achieve this speed and skills in an extremely short time, you would have to undergo serious 'training' and trust me, you would not like it." Said Yuuri.

"Ha…" replied Hijiri with a 'ok, but what?' look on his face.

Using his sleeve, Yuuri wiped off the sweat on his forehead, "wow, it sure is hot today! I think I will take a bath before I eat dinner, so let's end here! As how it should be, we shall have dinner at 6:30, ok?" asked Yuuri.

"Yes!" replied everyone.

"Ok, then you are all dismissed!" and Yuuri left for the baths.

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"Whoa, that was refreshing!" said Yuuri as he rubbed his hair with a towel and walked down towards his room.

The time was 6:00, he had his uniform on properly but his hair was still damp. Yuuri walked out to the balcony and enjoyed the breeze blowing his way, he breathed in the fresh air and took a good look of his country. It was peaceful on the outside, but Yuuri knew that danger was growing slowly from the inside.

This made Yuuri let out a sigh, "sooner or later… damn! Why are there always bad guys that love to make trouble? What can they achieve from that? It's pointless! I can't even begin to understand the slightest bit why they have to revive soushu!"

Time flew by when Yuuri kept on complaining to himself and trying to figure out how to handle the work at hand. Yuuri realized that actually his job was not easy at all, "ah I sure miss those guys! Gwendal can help me finish all my paper work, while Günter can give me all the best advices with the best evidences. Conrad always stands by my side, helping me in whatever I do. Wolfram comes with me on my adventures, always keeping me safe. Ah… I sure miss them… oh no! I'm trying to slack off again! This is exactly why I hid my identity, I can't be spoiled by them anymore! I have to work hard also!" decided Yuuri.

There came a knock from the door, Yuuri checked his disguises, they were fine.

"Come in!"

"Captain, dinner is ready, so we will have dinner earlier today." It was Yuuri's vice captain, Hijiri, he came in and told Yuuri that they could leave.

"Oh, ok. I'm ready, are you?"

"Yes, shall we go?"

Yuuri nodded and started walking in front of Hijiri.

--------

Yuuri pushed open the doors of the dining room, to be welcomed with a big round of applause.

"What is this?" asked Yuuri, who had no idea at all what was happening.

Then he saw Hijiri get a glass of wine and handed it to Yuuri, "captain, congragulations! You caught a thief today for the first time as Brinel's captain! You have successfully kept peace in shin makoku! Since this is the first time, we are celebrating. Also, we haven't had a welcoming party for you yet, so we decided to do it all together!"

"Ah." Said Yuuri, who was obviously still in shock.

"Well captain, come in first. Don't just stand there." Said two soldiers playfully as they pushed Yuuri inside.

It seemed like Yuuri had finally digested all the information he was given, "eh?! A party for me? Really? Wow! Thanks everyone! Cheers" and Yuuri finished the whole glass, some other soldiers also did. There was a very relaxing aura around everyone.

Then two of the soldiers that were with Yuuri that day came up to Yuuri with a plate full of food, "captain! Eat up! It tastes great!"

"Oh, thanks." Said Yuuri as he took the plate from them.

Unexpectedly, the two started saying, "captain! You were so cool today! You summoned such high leveled majutsu and washed the thief away! So quick, while we were there, not knowing what to do. You were so calm! Cool!"

"Also! You are really filled with justice! Captain! Those lines you said before you attacked were so great! Captain! You are so cool!"

Then other started gathering around Yuuri, asking questions that concern where he came from, who taught him, why he was so good, why he had so much maryoku, what made him want to be Brinel's captain, etc. and of course, Yuuri had to make up most of the answers, which was not easy at all. But it seemed like the barrier between them were gone, now they were all talking in a friendlier way.

"Captain! A soldier from the palace has a message for you!" announced a soldier from the door.

"Ah, let him in." said Yuuri, peeping his head out of the crowd.

"Yes."

The soldier in the grey uniform stepped in, announcing, "I am dorcascus! I have a message from lord Gwendal! May I see captain Yuuji?"

"Ah! Dorcascus! No need to be so stiff, just say it." Said Yuuri as he walked towards dorcascus.

"Ok, so lord Gwendal asked me to tell you that half of Brinel will go on their first mission the day after tomorrow and the other half stay for patrol. Here is the document that has the details." Dorcascus handed Yuuri a 5 pages long report on what their mission was.

"Thanks, dorcascus, you may leave now. Tell lord Gwendal that I will carry out the mission properly."

"Yes, I will. Then I shall take my leave now." Dorcascus bowed and went out of the door.

"Captain! What is our mission about?" asked one from the crowd.

"hmmn, let's see," Yuuri flipped open the document and scanned through it, after he has finished reading it, he answered, "we are to go to check on the security of the northern border lines of shin makoku, the place right next to the human countries. We are to leave in two days and go there for one, stay there for one and return in one day. So a three day mission."

"Cool! We get to go on a mission!" said one excited soldier.

"We won't go patrolling tomorrow! Instead, get ready to go on this mission, figure out among yourselves who will go to the mission and who will not. But don't forget, we will still have training in the morning!" said Yuuri.

"Yes!"

"If it is understood, shall we continue our feast?" asked Yuuri.

"Yeah!" they all yelled.

Training on the morning went smoothly, the packing up also did. It was the day for their mission. Yuuri stood among the soldiers who were loading things onto their horses, he had already loaded his stuff onto his horse, he was ready to leave, "are you guys all ready?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright then, let's head out!" Yuuri climbed onto his horse and took the lead, galloping away. Of course, the others followed tightly.

-----------------

Once again! Yuuri has used his maryoku! Waaaaah!! Yuuri!~ Kakkoii!~ haha

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed it!


	11. The First and Last Mission

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM!

Their first mission and perhaps the only one they will have! Enjoy!

-----------------

In the palace, everyone was having breakfast. "Greta, you seem very happy. Did something happen?" asked Wolfram, who saw Greta humming while she ate.

"No, nothing in particular." Hummed Greta with a big wide smile across her face.

Wolfram looked at her and mumble, "Hard to believe nothing happened."

"Well well, Wolfram, whatever happened it is great that Greta is feeling better." Said Conrad, the others agreed.

"So how's sir Yuuji doing? Gwendal?" asked Cheri.

"I suppose he is doing fine. He just finished one thief a few days ago. It seems like he is getting along with his men also. I heard from my men that he has a great attitude that everyone likes, also he trains well with them. I am quite surprised that he is doing that well. So I sent him and half of his team on a mission to check on the security on the border lines of shin makoku in the north. They should have just left." Reported Gwendal.

"He left?" shouted Greta.

Everyone turned to look at Greta with a puzzled face.

Günter asked, "Greta, do you know Yuuji?"

Realizing that she had asked a question that she shouldn't have asked, she covered her mouth, and said under it, "No, no, it was just that I wanted to meet him, since I heard from Doria that he was a very nice person. I was planning to go the Brinel headquarters today, but he left. I guess I have no choice but to wait." Greta ended with a really fake face.

It was obvious that she was hiding something, but they thought it wouldn't be much of a problem to let her keep it to herself, so they left it. Günter said, "Well, if it is how it is, then he will be back in three days, so wait for a while, ok? Greta?"

"Ok!" nodded Greta, she was really relieved that the secret wasn't out.

----------

The 15 men and Yuuri galloped through the fields, heading north to the border lines. They stopped for lunch and rests. Soon it was getting dark and they arrived at their inn. Their horses were put in the stables and they went into the inn that was reserved for them. "cool! The whole inn is wrapped up for us, there is nothing but Brinels here!" said Yuuri after he checked the whole group in.

He ordered, "Ok, so go to your assigned rooms and rest! Dinner will be in half an hour! So except for dinner time, you guys are free to do whatever you like. Just be sure you will be able to complete the mission tomorrow. And remember, don't wreck the Brinel's reputation!"

"Yes!"

"Dismissed!"

----------

So, dinner passed and so did the night. It was time for their mission. Brinel had their breakfast and waited for their captain with their horses outside the inn. Yuuri came out the last, everyone had their patrolling disguises on. The border line area was quite remote, so it was mostly grassland. Their mission was to see if it was as safe and peaceful as it looked.

"Everyone ready?"

"Yeah!"

"Then, let's go!"

Once again, Yuuri took the lead, while the others followed.

They searched in the streets, went into some shops randomly and checked the small streets at the back. It seemed peaceful, so they left it and headed for the grasslands, they looked behind trees, in caves, anywhere it seemed that someone could hide.

Just when they were thinking, mission complete, one of his men cried to Yuuri, "captain! There is a herd coming from that way!" he pointed to the far grasslands where it connected to the sky.

Yuuri darted his eyes that way and saw that it was true.

He could see it now, It was a group of 30 ninja-like people on horses heading straight towards them. Every second the group of 30 came closer and closer, closer and closer. Then, suddenly, an arrow plunged itself into the earth right in front of Yuuri, this was a clear sign of declaring a fight, it was certain that those people were enemy.

"Get ready for battle!" ordered Yuuri. His 15 men took out their swords, held their reins tight and took their stances.

Three of Brinel went first, charging into the enemy. But even before they could cut the enemy, a great force sent them flying off their horses.

"Oi! You guys alright?" cried Yuuri worriedly and some others helped the three to a safer place for some first aid.

Yuuri looked up to see the cause of this great force, to see that in the enemies' hands were houseki, mazoku's weak point.

"They are human?" mumbled Yuuri to himself. Of course, due to the housekis, some of Yuuri's men were not in quite a good condition, but Yuuri was fine with it, as he always is.

"What do you want?" yelled Yuuri to the enemy, "why are you in shin makoku with houseki? Why are you attacking us?"

"You will be in the way." Replied the leader of the enemy.

"Wha-?" before Yuuri could finish, they came charging. Two of Yuuri's men went in front of Yuuri to protect him, but was blast away by the houseki's power.

"How dare you! How dare you hurt my men!" yelled Yuuri. Yuuri had no choice, he had to release the Maou's power. His hair grew, though under the bandana, his eyes narrowed, blue maryoku glowed from him.

Yuuri summoned five blue dragons and made them run through the whole enemy force. Yuuri was so sure that it was a sure win majutsu, but he was wrong. The enemy had used their housekis to create a barrier around themselves, leaving them totally unharmed. The enemy combined all their housekis' power and created a huge monster. The monster attacked with houseki balls and Yuuri with maryoku ones. They fought on equal levels, neither one backing down.

But soon, Yuuri was panting, he became tired. Even though he had a great amount of maryoku, he has his limits too, never the less, this place was really close to the human lands, which makes him even weaker from the start.

_I can't attack, if I do, they would just put barriers around them. What should I do?... ah! It is the houseki that gives them power, if I break those, it should work!_

Yuuri sent wind over the enemy force and took all the houseki from them. With a blow, the housekis were grinded into sand and were not useable anymore. The monster disappeared and the faces of the enemy changed drastically. Yuuri summoned his dragons once more and chased the enemy away. It was quiet once again.

He turned back to say, "Everyone, it is alright no-"he was shocked by the scene in front of him. His men were all unconscious due to the approach with the houseki. Yuuri jumped down from his horse, to find that his legs were wobbly and his head was fuzzy.

"Ah, I must have used a bit too much maryoku… but I have to give each of them some of my maryoku, or they won't wake up any time soon." Said Yuuri to himself.

He activated his maryoku and engulfed all his men in the blue light. Yuuri let his maryoku seep into them, as every second passed, his eyes refused to open even more and when he decided that it was enough, he immediately dropped down and it became all black.

---------

Hijiri blinked his eyes a few times and opened his eyes to see the situation. He remembered that the enemy attacked and they attacked. Then his captain activated his maryoku, then… he went unconscious. He saw his sleeping comrades beside him, he woke them all up. One of them mumbled, "Eh? My body is not hurting? I thought we were suffering from houseki…"

One of them noticed, "Where's captain?"

"He's here!" they found him lying on the grass, not moving at all.

Hijiri came through, did some examinations, "he's out cold. It seems to be due to overuse of maryoku."

He swept through their surroundings and confirmed, "According to the situation I see right now, it seems like captain wiped out the enemy with majutsu alone. After that, he even shared some of his maryoku with us, so that we would heal."

Hijiri looked at the unconscious Yuuri, "Our captain is indeed an amazing person. But we better get him back to the palace for a checkup. I'm afraid that there might be something wrong with him." Hijiri picked Yuuri up and helped them both onto his horse, "I'll be leaving with him first, you guys take care of the rest!"

"Yes!"

---------

Hijiri traveled in high speed, so he arrived at the palace by late evening. He jumped off his horse with Yuuri on his back. At the same time, Conrad was there, patrolling. He saw the frantic hijiri with the unconscious captain Yuuji in his arms. He ran over, "what happened?"

"Lord Weller! We were attacked by humans with houseki, captain protected us which led to maryoku overuse. That is why his is like this now, I would like lady Gisela to have a look at him."

"Ah, we should, get him to his room first."

"Yes!"

--------------------

So that's it! Kind of short! But, Yuuri is finally unconscious due to using too much maryoku. So what will happen when they check up on him?


	12. Revealed

Well, well, well…. Yuuri might not sound so Yuuri here…. I wonder if it was alright.

Anyways… Here we have the exciting part! At least I think it is… Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM.

------------------

Hijiri took Yuuri to his own room in the castle and as soon as his laid Yuuri in his bed, Gisela, along with Conrad, Gwendal, Wolfram, Günter and Yozak arrived.

"Conrad, please help me loosen his clothes. Take off his bandana and contacts too." Gisela said as she prepared for Yuuri's treatment.

"Alright."

Conrad opened Yuuri's eyelids and took out the contact lenses, he mumbled, "black eyes…"

Then he untied Yuuri's bandana, as the cloth slid off, everyone's eyes in the room grew bigger, Günter gasped, "black hair."

Now that they looked at the captain's face without disguises, it was exactly like their late Maou's, Yuuri's face.

Conrad immediately reached for Yuuri's shirt and unbuttoned it, what he saw there made him step back in shock.

"Julia's necklace…"muttered Gisela.

"It's Yuuri. No doubt, with that eyes, hair and necklace that Conrad gave him, without a mistake, he is Yuuri!" said Wolfram, whose eyes and mouth were wide of shock.

"27th Maou, Shibuya Yuuri had never died and was actually right in front of us!" cried Gwendal.

"But why did kiddo do that? Why did he have to go through all those disguises?" asked Yozak.

"Yuuri …Heika?!" mumbled Hijiri who was in equal shock that he had been working with the Maou Heika all this time.

Gwendal was the first to get out of shock and ordered, "Gisela! Hurry and have a check on him!"

Everyone snapped back, Gisela replied, "Yes!" and started the checkup.

Conrad leaned against the wall, put his hand over his face, and said, "thank goodness, thank goodness."

----------

_Eh? I suppose I passed out from maryoku overuse… well, it turned out well, I just hope I won't die again. Shinou wouldn't be happy about that… he-he. Ah, I feel __rested__, it's about time I wake up now…_

Yuuri opened his eyes and blinked a few times until it focused. He looked around, "why is everyone here?"

"Yuuri!" cried Wolfram who noticed first that Yuuri was up, "are you feeling alright?"

"yeah… what did you call me? Yuuri?" Yuuri sat up and let out a sigh, "how many times do I have to tell you that I'm not h-" Yuuri tried to reach for the bandana that was supposed to be on his head, but it was not there.

This made him frantic, he took the blanket off him, "ah, this is the palace, right? I will take my leave now. Now if you will excuse m-"just as he stepped on the floor, he realized that his knees gave him away.

"Yuuri!" Conrad ran over and caught him before he fell onto the floor.

"Thank you…" Yuuri stood up and headed for the door again.

"Don't hide it anymore, we know perfectly who you are." Said Gwendal in a firm calm voice.

"What do you mean?" Asked Yuuri in a flat voice. He had perfectly understood Gwendal's statement, he had failed.

"You are the 27th Maou, Shibuya Yuuri." Said Gunter.

"Yuuri! Why? Why did you disguise yourself and not let us protect you anymore? Why? Are we that not reliable?" cried Wolfram.

Yuuri did not want to give up just yet, but no more excuses came to him.

"Ah, I failed once again. I'm such a failure." Yuuri slumped against the closest wall to him, sat down on the floor, hung his head low with his left leg straight in front of him and rested his head on his right that was up against his chest.

"Heika… is this really troubling you so much? To come back to us?" asked Günter worriedly.

"No, he is just mad at himself." Said the mysterious person who always seemed to pop out of nowhere. There at the door stood the great sage, Murata Ken.

Murata looked at Yuuri with an 'I can't help it' face, "ah, Shibuya, what's with that state? You look pathetic." Yuuri did not move an inch, he just continued to stare at the ground.

"Eh… well, since you did something reckless again, I had to check up on you, _again_!" sighed Murata hopelessly.

"Great sage!" yelled Wolfram and he rushed up to Murata and grabbed his collar, "did you and shinou Heika plan something and ordered Yuuri to go along your play?! Have you?! Tell me!"

There was no response from Murata, his eyes were not seen since his glasses were white from the light.

"It's not their fault that I did not come back to you all." Said Yuuri, still not moving.

Wolfram put Murata down and everyone's focus went back on Yuuri.

"He chose this path himself." Said Murata as he pushed his glasses into place.

"Heika, what exactly happened?" asked Gunter softly.

"After I died, my funeral was held. When you guys finally left me alone in my coffin and went to wait for the ceremony to start, that was when shinou and Murata came for me." Yuuri lifted his head up and stared blankly at the wall opposite of him.

He continued, "They took my body to the shinou palace and with the help of ururike, they performed a resurrection with their maryoku. Soon after that, I woke up and realized that I was alive."

Yuuri leaned back and looked at the ceiling, "when I was recuperating, I reflected on many things and realized many. I realized that I was a bad ruler, I was not fit. No matter physically, mentally and emotionally. I am weak, I always need you guys' protection. I am too naïve, I tend to trust people too much and end up making the wrong decisions and in the end, harm the whole country. I always release the Maou when my emotions are roused and tend to not care about the consequences. At the last war, it was also because I gave wrong orders and did not think of the plan properly that a lot of our soldiers died! It is my fault! All my fault! All because I did not do a fitting job!"

"But tha-"objected Wolfram, Yuuri continued before Wolfram could finish.

"That is why I decided not to return just yet. I asked shinou to train me, to teach me how to be a better Maou, just like how great he was. I didn't deserve it, I did nothing to gain all of you guys' trust, respect and care… and yet you guys still stay with me, this useless Maou. For this reason that I wished to not return to your sides just yet. I decided to work hard to climb to the top, to gain things through hard work is always the right way. But as I just started to tread down this path, I had failed, causing there to be no time for me to grow into your ideal worthy Maou. I'm sorry."

Yuuri put his head down in guilt, he felt lonely even when the room was filled with people. Then something unexpected happened, a pair of strong warm arms wrapped itself around his crouched body.

"Yuuri," this strong serene voice had always calmed him, Yuuri laid his head on Conrad's chest, relaxing a bit, "you were not a bad Maou at all, you have always been the light in our lives. It is true that you have made mistakes, but you are just a child, you have much to learn. You are not perfect, nor can you or anyone ever be, that is why we are here to help you, to guide you, so that you may become a better Maou by every second."

Yuuri looked up, and asked in a trembling voice, "really?"

"Of course! You wimp!"

Yuuri looked back to see everyone in the room looking at him with a warm smile and warm welcoming eyes.

"thank you."

-----------

Sorry for not updating for so long!

Hope you liked this chapter!~

Akenhod gave me some suggestions of changes in previous chapters. (Thanks)

And actually wrote new chapters for me!

So I might change the chapters before later!

But for now… I am just too lazy to do so…


	13. Relax

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM…. The old stuff…. Again.

Well this chapter is not tense at all. It fills in more information that was not said in previous chapters.

Also, I believe that it is necessary to have a more relaxed once in a while. So o let yuuri go play. Ha!

Enjoy!

--------------------

After a day, Yuuri was well again, he had moved into his Maou room once again.

Now he was having a meeting with the guys: Conrad, Wolfram, Gwendal, gunter, Yozak and Hube, "First, I want to apologize for my long absence. Then I want to ask, the whole nation thinks I am dead, what will you do about it?"

"heika, first, I want to congratulate your return and about that matter, it has already been taken care of." Replied Hube.

"Eh? How?"

"We simply said that you were revived by shinou, all of shin makoku are rejoicing that you are alive. They are planning to have a festival in honor of your return." Said gunter.

"is that needed? No. please ask them to suspend that for a while, there is a big issue here we have to cease before we can celebrate."

"And what may that be? Kiddo?"

Yuuri inhaled a big breath of air and said with a strict face, "shoushu has been revived, we are all in danger once more."

"What?!" they all cried in unison.

"heika, did I get it wrong, or did you just said that the shoushu you sacrificed your life to eliminate was revived?!" said gunter, hoping that he had heard it wrong.

"I did say. That is why we need to find a way to make it disappear from the face of this world before it goes berserk."

"How did you know?" asked Conrad.

"First, when I was in the tournament for the captain place, in the battle with Hijiri, there was an evil aura around him. As soon I defeated them all, black shadows slipped out from them. Also, when I went to shinou shrine afterwards, I confirmed with shinou and Murata, they did say there was a secret organization which revived soushu. That is why we have to destroy soushu once and for all." Informed Yuuri.

"But how? How do we destroy soushu? If Yuuri's majutsu could not destroy him completely, then what can?" asked Wolfram.

"This secret organization is called the thriving sparrows. Their leader is the one who has been supplying soushu with all the weak souls, which soushu can easily take over with evil. This is all I was told, I know no more." Said Yuuri.

Gwendal said, "That certainly is not enough information. We will have to investigate on this organization and then see what is best to do."

Yuuri nodded, "do that. Call for another meeting when you think there is enough information to calculate the next step, "he stood up, "you are all dismissed for today, I shall also take my leave now."

"heika, please relax yourself. It sure has been tough for you in the last months." Said gunter with a smile.

"Ah, go and have some fun, we will manage this!" agreed Yozak.

"Conrad, Wolfram, go with Yuuri." Ordered Gwendal.

They both nodded.

"Thank you, guys." Said Yuuri with soft grateful eyes.

He turned to Conrad and Wolfram and said, "oh let's go!" and he ran out with the two right behind him.

"It sure is nice to have heika back." Said gunter.

They all agreed, "ah."

"Hube and Yozak, you two go undercover. Yozak, among the human countries and Hube, among the mazoku land." Ordered Gwendal. "Gunter and I will go around documents and books to see if there is any information."

"Yes." They both replied.

----------

"Wow!" said Yuuri as he stretched, "that was unusual of Gwendal to so nice."

"Big brother was also very sad when you 'died'! You wimp!" said Wolfram.

"Don't call me a wimp!" argued Yuuri, then turned to Conrad, "Conrad? What can we do? Perhaps have a walk? Or go for horse riding? Or just sit around? You have any suggestions?"

Conrad gave a smile, "how does baseball sound?"

"We can? Sure! I haven't been playing for a long time, so don't blame me if I miss!" Yuuri started to head for the large piece of flat land in the castle.

"oi! Yuuri! Where are you going? The baseball field's this way!" shouted Wolfram.

Yuuri stopped and looked back in disbelief, "did I hear baseball field?"

"Yes, you sure did, heika." Replied Conrad.

"Cool! The one you showed me some time ago?" asked Yuuri.

"Yes. The field is done, we have the equipments and we have trained a team."

"Things sure have changed…" mumbled Yuuri to himself, then announced, "then let's get going! Lead the way!"

"Let's go."

----------

As Yuuri approached, the team looked up from their practice. They had heard Yuuri was alive, but wouldn't have believed it if they hadn't seen Yuuri now.

Of course they were all overjoyed to see their Maou here, good and alive, they all waved with smiles, "heika!"

Yuuri waved back from the top of Ao. They continued to ride to the stables beside the field and left their horses there.

They went into the equipment room and Yuuri fumbled around all the stuff.

"Cool! They all look so real! They are practically the same as the ones on earth!" Yuuri took a glove that fitted him, a bat and a ball, "let's go join everyone!"

He walked out, followed by Conrad and Wolfram who had their equipments too. Yuuri asked, "Everyone is it alright if I joined in a game?"

Dorcascus who was among them, replied, "of course, heika, it would be an honor to play baseball with you, heika. And perhaps a few tips from you."

"You're flattering me. I'm not that good. Is it only you guys that knows how to play baseball? Is there anyone else that can?" asked Yuuri.

"Brinel can." Said Conrad.

"They can? How come I have never heard of that?"

"You've only been with them for a short period of time and that period of time was so busy, who had the time to practice baseball? Wimp!"

"Don't call me wimp!" yelled Yuuri, then asked, "but why would Brinel, learn baseball?"

"That is of course because Brinel is your personal elite army, heika. The only thing you are interested is baseball. The least we can give you is your own team. " Said Conrad.

"I see! Thanks guys! I will check on Brinel later." He thought for a while then said, "I better thank Gwendal and gunter too when I get back."

"Are we going to play?! I don't want to just stand around doing nothing!" whined Wolfram.

"Oh yeah, let's get started! Let's split into…" Yuuri commanded the whole group and they had a great afternoon playing baseball.

---------------------

Haha! Yeah, that secret organization's name, if you have watched the third season of KKM, you would see that I am practically copying the style of the name. white ravens… thriving sparrows… though it does not sound very nice.

Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!

Sorry if it was too short!


	14. Thanks

Ok. This is the last chapter of relax-ness.

The next chapter will be back on the main topic.

Disclaimer: blah blah blah! Yes… I don't own KKM.

---------------------

The sun had set in with a blink of eye and now Yuuri was sitting in the dinner hall's balcony after everyone had left. He reflected on his actions so far, was it right? Yuuri was in such deep thought that he did not even notice that Gwendal was standing beside him.

"You better go back in before you catch a cold." Commented Gwendal in his deep calm voice.

Realizing that Gwendal was there, Yuuri turned around to face him. Yuuri haven't had the chance to take a good look at Gwendal ever since his return. He noticed that Gwendal's forehead was still scrunched up.

"ah, Gwendal, what are you doing here? Here have a seat" said Yuuri as he gestured Gwendal to take the seat across himself.

Gwendal said nothing but silently obeyed. He pulled the chair out and sat. "Yuuri, if you don't go back in, gunter might just go crazy."

It was as if Yuuri wasn't listening, he suddenly said, "it must have been hard on you guys. I'm sorry. But it seems like shin makoku still went by fine under your rule, Gwendal. You are most fitted to be the Maou. Great logic, tactics, strong maryoku, sokoku… yes, you are indeed very suitable."

Yuuri's statement was answered by a slam on the table. Yuuri looked up at Gwendal to see that he was really mad. Gwendal had his eyes closed, forehead scrunched, teeth gritted and fist gripped. It was as if he was holding in some really strong emotions.

Then it popped like a bubble and it all came out, "of course it was hard! Not only did we not have time to heal emotionally, we had to rule the country! All the people you consider friends think the same of you! You were the most important part of our life! And you just left! left us and left us with that burden of guilt. We were all devastated! But what could we do?! If we take our time to grief, regret and heal from our sadness, who will maintain the country?! Who?"

This left Gwendal huffing and puffing. He took a deep breath and calmed his emotions. Then he returned to the normal, cold Gwendal.

Yuuri was in shock. He did not know how to respond. Yes, he knew that what he did was wrong. But he never knew that him being 'dead' even affected Gwendal.

"I…" he knew he had to say something, but words just did not come out. Yuuri quickly searched his mind for some excuse, but none came to him.

Gwendal walked towards the edge of the balcony and faced outside. "But it is sure great that you are back. Just make sure you don't make any rash decisions before consulting next time. We need the mental preparation. You are important to us as Yuuri and Maou. You are one special Maou, I don't think everyone has ever expected any reasonable resolution from you." Said Gwendal, and he looked straight into Yuuri's black eyes.

After a couple long seconds, Gwendal turned for the door and as he passed Yuuri, he put something into his hands. then said without looking back, "that is for you. don't stay out for too long." And Yuuri was left alone once again.

Yuuri looked at what was given to him, it was a small plush toy. Yuuri grinned at the thought of it not being what he thought it was.

Yuuri pondered on Gwendal's speech. It was a lot to take in, but he understood every one of Gwendal's statements. Yuuri smiled and looked into the dark black sky, "thank you."

----------

Yuuri pushed open the doors of his room, only to find Wolfram and Greta inside, reading a bedtime story.

"Then the heroine, Anissina, who was facing the mosquito monster, took out her new invention the 'I-will-kill-you' kun and-"Wolfram stopped when he noticed Yuuri at the door.

"Yuuri! Come! Come! We started reading Anissina's new story while we were waiting for you! Hurry! It is at the climax now!"

"Where have you been? You wimp! If you had come any later, we would have already gone to sleep!"

"Ah, I was just out in the balcony. " Yuuri headed for the closet and took out his pajamas. He started unbuttoning his school uniform (as he is maou again, he is back in his old attire), "you guys continue! I will come join you as soon as I change!"

Yuuri looked at the two on the bed, wolfram read the story out with much expression and greta's eyes shone brighter with excitement with every dialogue. Yuuri let out a smile. He was glad, he was happy to see them enjoying themselves.

"Then, anissina used the I-will-kill-you kun to slap the mosquito monster up to the sky and continued to hit it nonstop when it came down. Then, the mosquito did not move anymore. Anissina had once again won against the monsters!" wolfram read triumphantly.

Yuuri got into the bed and whispered to wolfram, "I wonder if all this violence is good for greta?..."

"I'm not sure what we should do about this too. I can't just band anissina's books from her, she loves them!" Wolfram sighed, while greta was absorbed in the illustrations of the book.

Greta let out a yawn and rubbed her eyes. "oh! Seems like someone is tired! Lights out! We better get to sleep now!"

Greta and wolfram snuggled into the blanket and yuuri turned the lights off. By the time he was also in the blankets, the two had already drifted off to sleep. Yuuri looked at their peaceful faces and whispered with a smile, "goodnight."

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Once again! It is a short chapter!

Ha! And I just realized that gwendal is actually quite cool! So I decided to give him some time alone with yuuri!

Though, I still can't figure it out. Does gwendal call yuuri "yuuri"? or "heika"?

It is hard to find out because gwendal either does not talk, or he does not address yuuri.

And there are a few times he calls him yuuri and a few times heika! So I don't know. Sighs.

Anissina's stories are hard to make up. So it sounds weird there! Please just ignore it if you find it that bad.

I sure write little for such a long wait. I apologize for that. But I would find myself watching anime or reading others' fanfictions in my free time instead of writing my own fanfiction. So, that is why it is so slow.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I promise the next chapter will be much more interesting… and longer!

So please give feedback. Nice ones, if possible. Doesn't matter if it is short! Thanks a lot!


	15. Threat

Disclaimer: I don't own kkm! Grrr… where did the episode 116 raw go? I thought it was to be aired this week.

Well! Hope this chapter makes some sense! And please enjoy!!

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Yuuri was signing papers when a bird flew past and shrieked, "engi warui!!"

Knock. Knock. Knowing it was his subjects, yuuri answered, "come in."

They had something to report. Yuuri stacked up the papers and sat back in his seat. He looked at the mazokus in front of him, "I suppose you all have something to report. Perhaps it is about the thriving sparrows?"

"yes, heika. We have found out some information. "Answered huber.

"it seems that they know we are looking for them. And they have taken action. " Said gunter.

A slight crease appeared on yuuri's forehead and leaned forward to support his head with his hands. "and how did you get to know that?"

A simple answer was given by gwendal, "a threat was sent."

Conrad, wolfram and yuuri who had not known, had their eyes widened in disbelief. How could a threat be sent to them? And when?

"how?" demanded yuuri.

Yozak stepped forward and started explaining. "just yesterday, when I was walking in the corridors of the castle, I saw a soldier snooping around your chambers, bochan. I went up to him to ask what he was doing there. He did not answer but started waving his sword around aimlessly. Of course, for safety reasons, I just punched him in the guts and he fell unconscious. He was locked up in the jail cells afterwards."

Huber continued, "When that soldier woke up again. We took him for questioning. But before we could ask anything, he started laughing, there was this evil aura around him. I could not see it, but certainly could feel it. Then when he finally stopped, he said in a voice that seemed to not be his, 'tell your maou, come to us, or else we will continue to use your precious mazokus as our puppets, just like this unfortunate man. We, thriving sparrows, will not let soushu sama die.' Those were his exact words."

"then?" yuuri asked.

"he did not say a words since then. We have been told nothing else." Gwendal answered.

There was a pause. No one spoke. They could see that yuuri was in deep thought. It was rare to see him in that state. So, no one attempted to disturb the young maou's thoughts.

Then, he had come to a conclusion. Yuuri had stood up, "take me to him, I will interrogate myself."

"are you craz-" wolfram halted in instructions at his brother's hand.

"very well, we shall take you to him." And gwendal led everyone out of the room to the jail cell.

----------

As the group descended to the dungun, gwendal dismissed the guards around the cell, as what they were about to ask were not for ears to hear.

Conrad took out the keys and with a click the door screeched open. "I wish to talk to him myself. Everyone, please stay outside. " yuuri announced.

"that will not do. You either go in with our protection, or don't even think of stepping in that door." warned gwendal.

The other stayed silent as a sign of agreement. Defeated by his protective subjects, yuuri let out a sigh, "alright. But please don't interfere with my interrogation. "

Yuuri turned to enter the room with the others right behind him. There yuuri saw what looked like a normal blood pledge soldier chained to a chair. The man's face was rather pale and worn out. He seems to have been in some bad condition.

When the soldier saw yuuri enter, his drooped head shot up immediately, looking at yuuri desperately, "heika, I –"then his head hung again.

The whole room's temperature seemed to drop, the atmosphere around the soldier seemed to change also. As he looked up again, a new expression was seen. It was the same face, but there was an unknown evil grin plastered on.

Then, he spoke, "maou heika, I suppose your loyal dogs have told you the important message, correct?"

"I must ask, what use do I have for soushu's revival? I don' recall me having any particular methods to restore that hateful monster. "

"that I will not answer. But your question will definitely be answered if you come with us."

"what if I don't want to."

"I don't think you should act like you have a choice." Scoffed the 'soldier', "that is because if you decide not to. I will not take back my words and something like this would happen."

Then unexpectedly, "urgh." Wolfram groaned. And he dropped to his knees. That was followed by him clutching onto his own head and screaming out in agony.

"wolfram!" yuuri yelled.

Yuuri rushed over to wolfram but stopped when the screaming from wolfram ended abruptly. Wolfram swayed back up. His face was blank and his eyes seemed to be hollow. At that moment, wolfram pulled out his sword and laid it on his throat with his head tilted to the right.

Yuuri tried to approach the blonde slowly, "wolfram, what are you doing? Put the swo-" then yuuri realized that this was that 'soldier's' doing.

His eyes darted at the soldier. Glaring at him with deceitful eyes. It was as if there was an unseen battle going on between them.

Yuuri closed his eyes, as if he were admitting defeat. "so, you only know how to use these despicable tricks. Do you."

"whatever you say it is, will do, maou heika. "mocked the 'soldier', "have you come to a decision now? Will it be you or this young boy and your whole nation? It is your choice to be."

"hmph. Very well. You have won. Let wolfram go. And never take over a single mazoku or human again. Then I will go with you."

"heika, you mustn't!" protested gunter as he pulled yuuri back at his sleeves.

"perhaps taking up what your advisor said? " the 'soldier' questioned.

Yuuri shoved off gunter's hand. "no, you have my word." Confirmed yuuri, "now! Realease wolfram and my soldier!"

"go to the outskirts of shin makoku in 3 days. People from thriving sparrows will be waiting there for you arrival."

At the same moment, both wolfram and the soldier fell limp on the cold stone floor.

Yuuri hurried over to wolfram's side and began to shake him slightly. Gwendal also knelt down beside wolfram and checked his pulse. "he is alright, just unconscious."

Yuuri let out a sigh of relief. Then turned to gunter who was now beside the soldier, "how is he?"

Gunter nodded, "he's also just unconscious."

"Take them to Gisela. I don't want to take chances." Ordered yuuri.

----------

Gisela packed up her first aid box and reported, "His Excellency, wolfram is alright now. He must have passed out due to the exhaustion of having another mind in his body. He should be waking up any minute now." Then she excused herself and left the room.

Wolfram's brothers and lady cheri was also standing with yuuri by wolfram's bed side.

"Didn't I tell you not to make decision without consulting us?" asked gwendal.

"Nothing could have been done in that situation." Replied yuuri.

"I will not allow you to go to them, yuuri." Said Conrad.

"According to the situation now, thriving sparrows have the upper hand. We are powerless. You can't possibly suggest me to give up the whole of shin makoku for my life!"

"the same would happen if you revive soushu." Stated gwendal.

Yuuri never thought about this. "yes, but during these 3 days, if we manage to find out a way to destroy soushu instead of reviving it, everything would work out."

"and you expect us to let you do this job when we know it would most likely not work?" asked Conrad.

"but-!"

"yuuri, no buts. We would never willingly put you in danger." Said a new voice. It was wolfram. He had woken up.

Everyone had their eyes on wolfram. Lady cheri put her hands on wolfram's, and asked softly with worried eyes, "wolf, are you alright now?"

"yes, I am feel fine now. Thank you."

"are you sure? Wolfram?" asked yuuri.

"yeah! the main problem now is that deal! Even if you say, destroy soushu again, do you know how?"

"that is…"

"there is a way." At the doorway, stood murata.

"murata! How? How can I destroy soushu?"

"by suppressing soushu back to nothing."

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Well! How was that? …suppressing soushu back into nothing… I will have to think of a good reason for this way of destroying soushu…. Haha

I realized that i have completely left hijiri alone for a lot of chapters. I wonder where he went. I will have to give him some time in the next chapter. I can't just throw him away!!!

Thanks for reading! Please review!!!


	16. How

Hi everyone! Nice to see you all again!

After a long long long break of writing this fan fic. I have finally gone back into action. Since it is summer!! And summer holidays are here!! Yeah!

It is a short chapter! There is no action…. Just explanations

But still hope u all enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own KKM!! Though I hope I did…. So that a another season would come out. Sighs…

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"suppressing soushu? How is that done?" asked yuuri.

"yeah! how?" asked wolfram. Jumping out of his bed, he continued, "last time shinou heika sealed soushu. But how can soushu be suppressed… back to nothing?"

"maa. Slow down. I was just getting to the explaining part." Said murata as he motioned them to slow down.

"is it safe? What is this plan's succession rate?" gwendal threw straight forward questions at the great sage.

The great sage gave it a thought and replied, "I would say it should be safe, that is if everyone does their part and nothing goes out of my expectations. And the succession rate of removing soushu is very high. I would say about 90%"

Then, Conrad brought them back to their original query, "so, how does the plan go?"

"alright. Shibuya will go with the thriving sparrows. We have made an agreement with them. If shibuya fails to follow it, I am pretty sure that they will do as they have said and the whole of shin makoku will fall into their grasps. We do not want that to happen."

Murata closed the door behind him and walked further into the room. "shibuya will not be harmed on the way to the thriving sparrows' headquarters, since they have stated that shibuya's powers will be needed for the revival of soushu. So, then, shibuya will meet with the whole organization in the headquarters, where most of the members are. We will strike there."

"wouldn't that put heika in danger? To leave him in the midst of the enemies during a battle?" asked gunter worriedly.

"yes. That is why, shibuya would also have to release his powers during that time and defeat as many enemies as he can in the shortest period of time." Murata turned to yuuri, "but, shibuya, do not use up too much maryoku to defeat the enemies, for suppressing soushu would need a lot of maryoku."

Yuuri nodded, "I understand."

Murata continued, "shibuya would have to fight with soushu. To compete who has a stronger power. That is why, shibuya," murata directed his speech to yuuri, "you will have to release a great amount of maryoku, cover the whole of soushu and press it down, therefore compressing it."

"but to make sure that soushu does not escape during the process, we would have to create a barrier around the whole thriving sparrows' headquarters." Murata turned to gwendal, "lord von Voltaire. You and lord von Bielefeld and lord von christ will be accompanied by 20 of our best maryoku users to create the barrier."

"yes."

"as expected from our great sage." Said gunter, "to think of such a complete plan. we follow through completely and keep yuuri heika safe at all costs."

"it has its risks, but that is the best we can come up with. We have to try." Agreed Conrad.

The others nodded in support.

"um, I have a question." All focus was diverted to yuuri. "So what will happen in these three days?"

And all eyes were back on murata, waiting for an answer. " shibuya, you will be training with ulurike to have better control on your maryoku. And you would also do your usual swordsmanship training with lord weller. As for lord von Voltaire, lord von bielefield and lord von Christ, you would be with the 20 members of maryoku users to practice making a large mayoku barrier altogether. As for lord weller, aside from training shibuya, you would have to plan with yozak the route and tactics to sneak into the headquarters and defeat the enemies."

Everyone nodded in determination.

"everyone heard murata, so let's get to it and prepare for the fight!" shouted yuuri.

"yes!"

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So I am still writing up the next chapter… so it is not going to be out too soon.

I am sorry. Hope you have enjoyed this chapter and will continue to support this fan fic!

KKM rocks!


	17. Risks

Hey sorry guys, after such a looooooong wait, it is just this bit.

And still it is not the battle!

It is still talking. Sighs. I know how you guys are feeling, because I also feel that it is taking too long to get to the point.

But please bear with me and continue to read this fanfic.

(oh, and I re-wrote chapter 1, so if you guys would like to, please read it. I like it better now.)

Disclaimer: I love KKM. But I will never have the privilege to own it.

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The night before the promised meeting

All trainings were done. All explanations have been made. Everyone was ready. The young king sat alone on the bench in the courtyard, enjoying the evening breeze. Yuuri sat there, deep in thought of the battle that would begin tomorrow.

"shibuya." Murata said as he put a hand on yuuri's shoulder.

Yuuri turned his head towards murata, "ah, murata. I didn't notice that you were there." yuuri motioned for murata to take a seat beside him.

"so, what were you thinking about?" Murata leaned back on the bench and gazed far into the starry sky.

"I wonder why they want to revive soushu. It brings no good to anyone. So, why go through all this trouble?"

"shibuya, some people want power, and they want it fast. So sometimes, turning to the bad is the only choice. They would go for it regardless of the consequences. " murata sighed.

Yuuri leaned forward to put his elbows on his knees, "ne, murata. If we are be able to compress soushu this time, why did we not last time and shinou's time?"

Murata nodded, "this time, the soushu you are going to compress has been sealed off twice already, which makes it rather weak at the start. Compressing it to defeat it is much harder than sealing it off. So, that is why neither you nor shinou has ever tried doing so before."

"I see."

Murata continued, "So, with the sealed soushu, it would be easier to compress it and destroy it. But there are the risks and dangers to it, because it should be your maryoku that releases soushu from its seal. But it is also your maryoku that compresses and destroys soushu. That is why there is a contradiction. Your maryoku is able to both release and destroy soushu."

"that is why we need gwendal and the others to make a barrier? To prevent soushu from escaping while I change from releasing to compressing?"

"yes."

There was silence between the two double blacks.

Then murata sighed, "I do hope that nothing goes wrong tomorrow. After all, we are taking a risk to release soushu and then destroy him. We cannot allow any mistakes, or else the people of shin makoku would be in danger. "Murata paused for a second and continued, glasses reflecting the moon's light.

"also, shibuya, the reason I came here is to tell you that there is an extremely high risk for you to do all this." Murata's face was etched with worry, "you might also disappear along with soushu."

"I see. I knew it wouldn't be such an easy deal. "Muttered yuuri calmly.

"I had to tell you here and now because we can't have your subjects interrupting your decision. For the sake of shin makoku. "

"you did the right thing, murata. there is no other choice. That is the only way can destroy soushu once and for all. It is the only way…"

"to compress soushu is to push soushu into another dimension. Making it disappear from shin makoku and also taking its power away from it at the same time. It won't be able to come back to cause any harm forever." Explained murata, "But, shibuya, there is a high chance that you might also be sucked into that dimension. You might not be able to come back."

"I understand."

The great sage had his head hung down, "I'm sorry, shibuya."

Yuuri turned to murata and smiled, "I'll try my best to stay here."

"you better. Or else a lot of people will be sad."

"yeah. I know." Said yuuri, gazing into the endless sky.

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So, was this chapter disappointing?

Or was the piece of news shocking and surprising to you?

Hope it was good either way!

I will work harder to write quicker!

Thanks!


	18. Leaving for the battle

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM.

Hey! A new chapter! and they are finally starting the journey!

So please enjoy.

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Gentle morning sunlight seeped through the heavy curtains of the maou's chambers. Yuuri had already woken up. He did not have a deep sleep the night before since it was a big day today.

He sat up and changed into his usual black uniform, getting ready for the day. Neither wolfram nor greta was there with him, since wolfram had been busy with training and greta was to stay with cheri-sama for safety reasons.

"so this day has finally come." Mumbled yuuri to himself as he looked at himself in the mirror.

Yuuri combed his hair and straightened his black uniform, getting ready to leave for the battle.

Yuuri reached out to the blue pendent that lay on the wooden table next to him. He picked it up and walked towards the window. Yuuri held up the necklace to the morning sunlight, allowing it to clearly show the patterns embedded in the clear blue stone. "Julia-san, please give me the power to protect everyone." Whispered yuuri.

yuuri put on his protection charm, took up morgif and walked out of his heavy wooden chamber doors.

The hallways were dim, Yuuri's shoes clapped against the marble floors in the hallways on his way to the front of the castle. Yuuri came to a stop as the guards at the main gates opened a way for their maou to pass through.

Yuuri stood at the top of the steps, "good morning! Everyone!"

Yuuri's cheerful morning greeting caught the attention of the groups of people who were rushing around, making last adjustments and preparations.

They all turned to their maou and replied with many voices of "good morning" s

Yuuri nodded with a smile and proceeded to where his subjects were, but then a very familiar group caught his attention. That group was…

"eh? Hijiri? Why are you here?" yuuri looked around again, "even the other members of brinel are here?"

Hijiri reported, "heika. The mission today requires 20 majutsu users. Since we, brinel, are the elites of elite majutsu users, 20 of us were chosen to help."

"ah, I see." Mumbled yuuri, then he waved to them, "well, it is nice to see you guys again!"

There were joyful sighs of "heika" and "captain" in response.

Yuuri scanned over the people who were getting ready for their departure, there were gwendal and gunter and wolfram were holding out a map, discussing the tactics, Conrad and yozak stood side by side, talking like old friends, hube stayed by murata as murata monitored the preperations, brinel was making last arrangements and… quite a huge number of shin makoku soldiers were standing around.

Yuuri was puzzled to why they had to bring the army. He headed towards gwendal and the others. Gunter immediately gave his favorite maou a morning squeeze, "good morning, heika."

"hey! Gunter! Get off yuuri! He is my fiancé!" as usual.

Yuuri pushed the both of them off him. Then turned to gwendal, "ne, gwendal, why do we have to bring the army too? That was not mentioned in the plan."

"We have no idea how many people the thriving sparrows. We have to be careful." A clear cut answer was given.

Then, murata, hube, Conrad and yozak headed over. Murata said, "shibuya, the preparations are all done. We can leave any second now."

"ok. Let's go."

Just as they were going to head for their horses, a heartbreaking yell of a little girl stopped yuuri in his tracks. Greta was crying as she ran for yuuri, "yuuri! Don't leave!"

Yuuri knelt down and opened his arms, welcoming the small figure to bury herself in his arms. As yuuri comforted greta, he saw that cheri-sama, annissina, Gisela, Nicola and the three maids were standing at the bottom of the steps, faces filled with worry. They had come to see them off.

Yuuri let go of greta and faced her, "greta, there is nothing to be scared of. I promise you. I will keep everyone safe. Nothing bad will happen, ok?"

"but, but, what if you disappear again? Yuuri? I don't want to be apart from yuuri!" greta wailed even harder.

Yuuri patted greta's head, "shh, greta is a good girl. I won't die. So don't worry. Remember, no matter what happens, I will always be with you right here." putting his hand over her heart. "Because we are always one family. Ok?"

Greta sniffed, "greta will always be with you too. Yuuri."

"yes. That is a good girl" yuuri gave his daughter a last hug and climbed onto Ao.

He looked back from Ao and waved, "bye, everyone!"

Then they rode off.

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"murata. Can you brief me on what I will have to do after I part with you guys? I just want to make sure I will be doing the right stuff." Asked yuuri as he and murata rode side by side.

"ok." Murata took out a map and pointed. "We will part with you around there. You will have to proceed to meet the thriving sparrow on your own, since that is one of their conditions. We will be tracking you from a distance so that we can come to your aid once you need it. "

Yuuri nodded and murata continued.

Murata took out a flare and handed it to yuuri, "this is how you will be giving us a signal. Once the battle with the thriving sparrow start, please light that to notify us. Also, please mind how you use your maryoku to fight the members. Our aim is to have you compress soushu, so don't use your maryoku for the enemies unless it is absolutely necessary." Murata grinned, "your swordsmanship is even better than lord von Bielefeld's, fighting off some soldiers of thriving sparrows with morgif should be a piece of cake."

"ha! It seems so. Right? Morgif?" Agreed yuuri and he gave morigif a pat, which was responded with a "uuuuaaaa" in agreement.

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And finally, they were at the end of the forest, a fair distance away from the appointed meeting place. There, they were to part.

After checking that he had his flare and weapons, yuuri said, "goodbye everyone."

"what goodbye? We will see each other soon enough. So it should be 'see you guys later', you wimp!"

Yuuri gave a weak smile, "I guess so."

"Stay safe, heika." Conrad said worriedly.

"I'll try my best."

"bocchan! You will stay safe. Don't just try. We will be waiting for you! If you aren't in one piece after this battle, you won't be able to go to the celebration party afterwards!" teased yozak.

"yes. That would definitely be a loss if I don't go."

"Heika! Please stay safe! The truth is I don't even want to part you for a second! But nothing can be done! The only comfort I have is that I know I will be able to share peaceful day with heika after this! " wailed gunter dramatically as he reached to hug yuuri.

Yuuri pushed gunter away, "hai, hai, gunter, I don't want to be parted from you either…"

"remember what you should remember and stay composed. This should be good training for your future of being maou…" Commented gwendal.

"I suppose?"

"don't you dare cheat on me! You wimp! Or else I will kill you when we get back to the castle!" yelled wolfram.

"how can I even cheat in the battlefield?!?"

"stay safe, yuuri. I have faith in you." Said Conrad.

"I will. Thanks, nazukeoya."

"bocchan, show them what you've got and tell me how you kicked their butts in the party!" said yozak.

"I will kick their butts… yozak."

"heika. I will be at you aid once you need it. Rest assured." Confirmed hube.

"thanks hube. I can count on you."

"let's train together again after this! Captain!" said hijiri for the whole group.

"you guys must train every day, I have my hopes high for you guys!"

"sayonara, shibuya."

"take care of things while I'm not around. Ok? Murata?"

"yeah."

"thanks and sayonara."

Yuuri looked at everyone with a smile once again and rode off to the appointed place. Thankful for the last chance he was given to hear all of them talk to him.

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That's it! How was it? Nice parting?

Hope this chapter was good.

This was not a short chapter! I am so proud of myself!

Please review!

Thanks a lot for reading!


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